Department for Transport

National College for High Speed Rail

Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the costs to the public purse have been for establishing the National College for High Speed Rail at (a) Doncaster and (b) Birmingham; how many staff are employed at each of those locations; how much has been spent on (i) salary and (ii) expenses costs for those staff; and what the annual running costs have been at each of those locations in the last 12 months for which information is available.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: Capital funding of £33.3m was provided by the Department for Business Innovation & Skills to Birmingham City Council as Accountable Body towards capital costs associated with the establishment of The National College for High Speed Rail. The monies were paid between financial years 15-16 and 17-18.In addition to this, £6m contributions were payable by the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership and the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority (formally known as the Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and Sheffield Combined Authority). The land at each site was donated by Birmingham City Council and Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council.The College received a working capital loan from the Department for Education of £8.3m to fund its start-up, £4,710k being paid in March 2017 and £3,590k in January 2018. It also received a loan of £2,770k from HS2 Ltd, paid in March 2017. Interest is applicable on the loans at standard treasury rates.A revenue grant of £4.55m is payable by the Department for Education between January 2019 and July 2020. £2m was paid January 2019, £1.75m becomes payable in June 2019 and £0.8m will be paid in June 2020. StaffingA total of 64 staff are employed at the National College for High Speed Rail, with 22 based in Doncaster and 42 in Birmingham. Staffing costs per year:Salary costs 2015/16 – £278kSalary costs 2016/17 – £1,683kSalary costs 2017/18 – £2,578kSalary costs August 2018 to January 2019 - £1,390kExpenses are included in the amounts above Running/ premises costsAnnual running costs for the last 12 months where information is available – 12 months to July 2018: Total premises costs £874k of which Birmingham costs were £444k and Doncaster £430k.

High Speed Two

Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will (a) list the assurances made to petitioners that have been breached by HS2 Ltd and (b) provide the dates and details of each of those breaches.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: (a) There has been one incident of non-compliance involving three related Undertakings and Assurances (U&As), numbers 1969, 2553 and 1976 on the Public Register.(b) This incident of non-compliance occurred in the week commencing 16 October 2017. The incident involved the removal of tree branches for security reasons without prior engagement with the Woodland Trust, as required by the assurance. As soon as HS2 Ltd had identified this incident, works were stopped and the Woodland Trust was notified. A full investigation subsequently took place, the investigation findings were shared with the Trust, and mitigations recommended as a result of the investigation were put in place.

High Speed Two

Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when HS2 Ltd will publish the protocols for dealing with breaches of assurance.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: In line with commitments made to the HS2 Phase 2a Commons Select Committee a protocol for how to report a possible non-compliance with an Undertaking or Assurance agreed for Phases 1 and 2a will be published no later than Royal Assent for the HS2 Phase 2a hybrid Bill.

High Speed Two: Staff

Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many HS2 Ltd staff left the company in each month of the last two years; and what the total number of staff on the payroll was in each of those months.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: Information on the Number of HS2 Ltd staff who left the company and the headcount for each month in the last two years is set out in the table below. All Payrolled staff1MonthHeadcountLeaversJan-2017105313Feb-2017105821Mar-2017105437Apr-2017108514May-2017109111Jun-2017109016Jul-2017108618Aug-2017107617Sep-2017110628Oct-2017112011Nov-2017112314Dec-2017113012Jan-2018115611Feb-2018118113Mar-2018119318Apr-2018121717May-2018121616Jun-2018123712Jul-201812567Aug-2018125421Sep-2018126118Oct-2018127117Nov-2018126525Dec-20181261191) Figures include HS2 Permanent staff, HS2 Fixed Term Contract staff, Graduates and Apprenticeships and therefore the data includes staff with fixed term or temporary contracts which have a natural end date.

Department for Transport: Contracts

Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department paid to contractors for (a) hotel accommodation and (b) travel costs in 2018.

Jesse Norman: The Department consists of a central department and four agencies (the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency, Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency, Vehicle Certification Agency and Maritime & Coastguard Agency). We have estimated that the information requested can only be provided at disproportionate cost and would exceed the £850 cost limit.

High Speed Two: Staff

Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many HS2 Ltd staff are working exclusively on mitigating the environmental effect caused by HS2 Ltd.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: HS2 Ltd takes its environmental responsibilities seriously and seeks to reduce its environmental impacts across all staff and project disciplines. There are currently 82 HS2 Ltd staff working exclusively on mitigating the environmental effects of HS2. This includes individuals that are embedded within the organisation via HS2 Ltd’s development partner. These staff cover all project phases (Phases 1 and 2).

Crossrail Line

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps are being taken to reduce the cost to the public purse of delays in the construction of Crossrail.

Andrew Jones: Crossrail Limited, the organisation responsible for delivering the project and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Transport for London, are working to establish a robust delivery schedule and gain certainty regarding the final cost of the project. As announced in December, the Department is providing a loan of £1.3bn to the Greater London Authority and an additional loan facility of up to £750m to Transport for London to finance the remaining costs of the project. It is expected the project will be completed within the revised funding envelope of £17.6bn. With the financial package now in place, Crossrail Limited can focus on finishing construction and moving ahead with the testing ready for the introduction of passenger services as soon as possible.

Network Rail: Expenditure

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much Network Rail spent on (a) management, (b) publicity and public relations, (c) marketing and (d) recruitment in each of the last three years.

Andrew Jones: Network Rail’s expenditure on management, publicity and public relations, and marketing, is listed below. Management (£m)Publicity and Public Relations (£m)Marketing (£m)FY17/18762.09.71.5FY16/17687.06.01.5FY15/16654.09.51.3 Network Rail expenditure on publicity and public relations is limited to the promotion of safety and public awareness campaigns. Network Rail does not hold central records on recruitment costs.

Midland Main Railway Line: Electrification

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will extend the electrification of the Midland Main line to Market Harborough.

Andrew Jones: Network Rail has been instructed to design an extension of electrification infrastructure from Kettering to Market Harborough station, as part of the Midland Main Line enhancements programme. The Overhead Line Equipment (OLE) extension to Market Harborough will enable a new connection to a power supply at Braybrooke. At Outline Business Case stage in March 2018 this was determined to be the best value for money option for making the power supply connection. In line with normal practice, this will be tested again when the overall Midland Main Line programme Key Output 1a, of which Market Harborough electrification is a constituent part, is assessed at Full Business Case stage.

High Speed Two Railway Line: Buckinghamshire

Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the (a) permissions and (b) legal assurances for clearances of vegetation planned to take place on 200 acres near Steeple Claydon Buckinghamshire by (i) HS2 Ltd (ii) contractors working for HS2 Ltd; and the dates on which they were obtained.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The permissions to undertake the work in question cover the following: LandHS2 Ltd’s contractors will initially undertake the vegetation clearance work using access rights granted under Schedule 2 of the High Speed Rail (London to West Midlands) Act 2017 (“the HS2 Act”).This involves engaging with the landowners to discuss minimising the impact of the work.The required land will be acquired under Schedule 16 of the HS2 Act 2017, notices of which are imminent to the landowners. Ecology & EnvironmentThe vegetation clearance proposed will be undertaken in accordance with the following ecological consents and licences:The HS2 Act HS2 Organisational European Protected Species Licence for Great Crested Newt WML025. First issued March 2017.HS2 Organisational European Protected Species Licence for Badger WML024. First issued February 2018. Highway AuthorityHS2 Ltd is in the process of producing applications under schedule 4 of the HS2 Act which detail the highway traffic management that it plans to implement to undertake the works. These are subject to approval by the local highway authority. Network RailThe Asset Protection Agreement Brief, required under the Framework Asset Protection Agreement with Network Rail, is in place, under which the possessions are currently being requested. As part of its commitment to keep communities informed of works that may affect them, HS2 Ltd also issued an Advance Works Notification to people within the vicinity of the area to be cleared, advising them of the planned work and how it may affect the local community. This was issued in early February 2019.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Post Office: ICT

Mr Ranil Jayawardena: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much money from the public purse has been spent on the Horizon IT High Court case to date.

Kelly Tolhurst: The Government recognises the critical role that post offices play in communities and for small businesses across the UK. This is why the Government committed to safeguard the post office network and protect existing rural services. The overall number of post offices across the UK remains at its most stable in decades with over 11,500 branches thanks to significant Government investment of over £2 billion since 2010. While the Post Office is publicly owned it operates as an independent, commercial business. As such, the legal defence of this litigation and the costs involved in doing so are being handled by Post Office Limited. As the litigation is ongoing in the High Court, the Government is unable to comment further.

Minimum Wage: Voluntary Work

Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what amendments have been made to the guidance relating to section 44 of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 since its enactment.

Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether there was a public consultation in support of the development of guidance relating to section 44 of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998.

Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the Government plans to amend the guidance relating to section 44 of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998; and if he will make a statement.

Kelly Tolhurst: Section 44 of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 sets out a specific exemption that applies to voluntary workers. People volunteering for charities, voluntary organisations and other relevant organisations contribute a huge value to society, and they do so without an expectation of being paid the National Minimum Wage. Guidance is available on gov.uk to support charitable and other relevant organisations in determining when voluntary workers are covered by the exemption. This is contained in ‘Calculating the Minimum Wage’, which was first published in April 2013 and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/calculating-the-minimum-wage This guidance on when voluntary workers are exempt from the National Minimum Wage has not been the subject of a formal consultation and there are no immediate plans to amend it. If the Department receives representations that show there is a need for improved guidance we would consider these carefully.

Conditions of Employment: EU Countries

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the European Court of Justice will have jurisdiction over a claim brought by a UK national under the Transfer of Undertaking Regulations 2006 in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal and that national's employment transfers under the regulations from a UK employer to an employer in an EU member state.

Kelly Tolhurst: The EU Withdrawal Act 2018 established that if the UK leaves the EU without a deal UK courts and tribunals will no longer be able to refer cases to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on or after exit day. Decisions of the CJEU made on or after exit day will not be binding on UK courts and tribunals, but judges may take these judgments into account if it is relevant to the matter before them. This principle will apply to claims brought in the UK under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE). As is the case before exit, an employment claim against an employer in another EU Member State (i.e. not the UK) may be brought in that country under its relevant national legislation. This will depend on the facts and circumstances of a particular case.

Gratuities: Unfair Practices

Sir David Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when his Department plans to bring forward legislative proposals to tackle unfair practices in the hospitality sector in relation to (a) tips, (b) gratuities, (c) cover charges and (d) service charges.

Kelly Tolhurst: The Government has announced its intention to legislate to ensure that all tips left to workers are kept by them in full. In some sectors, tips are a significant part of staff income. It is only right that workers keep the full value of tips left in recognition of good service and hard work. This commitment was published as part of the Government’s Good Work Plan, which represents the largest upgrade to workplace rights in a generation. Full details of legislation on tips will be published in due course.

Nuclear Power Stations: North West

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent discussions he has had with the North West Nuclear Arc on innovation and future growth in new nuclear in the North West.

Richard Harrington: Last year, the North West Nuclear Arc completed a Science and Innovation Audit (SIA), a BEIS sponsored project, that mapped the strengths and opportunities in their area. This will be published, with the other eleven Wave 3 SIAs, by BEIS in due course. Proposals for a £30 million national and regional nuclear supply chain and productivity improvement programme, developed with participation from Local Enterprise Partnerships in the North-West in conjunction with other parties, are currently being considered by BEIS as part of the commitments within the Nuclear Sector Deal. The Government welcomes the initiative of nuclear businesses, supply chain clusters, universities and innovators across Cumbria, the wider North West, and North Wales to work together through the North West Nuclear Arc. We believe our policies through the Nuclear Sector Deal and Nuclear Innovation Programme will support the North West Nuclear Arc to capitalise on the regions historic strengths in the nuclear sector. It was this Government that agreed a landmark Nuclear Sector Deal worth over £200m, as well as giving the go-ahead to Hinkley Point C, the first new nuclear power station in a generation.

Nuclear Power Stations: North West

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to work with the North West Nuclear Arc to develop innovation and future growth in new nuclear in the North West.

Richard Harrington: Last year, the North West Nuclear Arc completed a Science and Innovation Audit (SIA), a BEIS sponsored project, that mapped the strengths and opportunities in their area. This will be published, with the other eleven Wave 3 SIAs, by BEIS in due course. Proposals for a £30 million national and regional nuclear supply chain and productivity improvement programme, developed with participation from Local Enterprise Partnerships in the North-West in conjunction with other parties, are currently being considered by BEIS as part of the commitments within the Nuclear Sector Deal. The £180m Nuclear Innovation Programme which is part of the 2016-21, £505m BEIS Energy Innovation Programme is part of the Nuclear Sector Deal. The Programme covers the whole of the UK Nuclear Research and Development community in order to develop and promote innovation and future growth in the nuclear sector in the UK in conjunction with the Nuclear Sector Deal.The Government welcomes the initiative of nuclear businesses, supply chain clusters, universities and innovators across Cumbria, the wider North West, and North Wales to work together through the North West Nuclear Arc. We believe our policies through the Nuclear Sector Deal and Nuclear Innovation Programme will support the North West Nuclear Arc to capitalise on the regions historic strengths in the nuclear sector. It was this Government that agreed a landmark Nuclear Sector Deal worth over £200m, as well as giving the go-ahead to Hinkley Point C, the first new nuclear power station in a generation.

Nuclear Power Stations: Cumbria and North Wales

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to support North West Nuclear Arc innovation partnerships in enabling the next phase of nuclear generation development in (a) Cumbria and (b) North Wales.

Richard Harrington: Last year, the North West Nuclear Arc completed a Science and Innovation Audit (SIA), a BEIS sponsored project, that mapped the strengths and opportunities in their area. This will be published, with the other eleven Wave 3 SIAs, by BEIS in due course. Proposals for a £30 million national and regional nuclear supply chain and productivity improvement programme, developed with participation from Local Enterprise Partnerships in the North-West in conjunction with other parties, are currently being considered by BEIS as part of the commitments within the Nuclear Sector Deal. The £180m Nuclear Innovation Programme which is part of the 2016-21, £505m BEIS Energy Innovation Programme is part of the Nuclear Sector Deal. The Programme covers the whole of the UK Nuclear Research and Development community in order to develop and promote innovation and future growth in the nuclear sector in the UK in conjunction with the Nuclear Sector Deal. The Government welcomes the initiative of nuclear businesses, supply chain clusters, universities and innovators across Cumbria, the wider North West, and North Wales to work together through the North West Nuclear Arc. We believe our policies through the Nuclear Sector Deal and Nuclear Innovation Programme will support the North West Nuclear Arc to capitalise on the regions historic strengths in the nuclear sector. It was this Government that agreed a landmark Nuclear Sector Deal worth over £200m, as well as giving the go-ahead to Hinkley Point C, the first new nuclear power station in a generation.

Nuclear Power Stations: Cumbria and North Wales

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to replicate the funding allocated to North Wales for the thermal hydraulics research facility in Bangor with spending on the nuclear industry in Cumbria; and if he will make a statement.

Richard Harrington: The proposed Thermal Hydraulics facility in Bangor is part of the BEIS led Nuclear Innovation Programme and is in its very early stages of development. The £180m Nuclear Innovation Programme is part of the 2016-21, £505m BEIS Energy Innovation Programme. The Programme covers the whole of the UK Nuclear Research and Development community in order to develop and promote innovation and future growth in the nuclear sector in the UK in conjunction with the Nuclear Sector Deal.The National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) is successfully delivering and playing a leadership role on three streams of the Nuclear Innovation Programme; Advanced Fuels, Recycle and Waste Management and Strategic Toolkit. All areas utilise key nuclear skills and research infrastructure in the North West including Cumbria. The NNL also invests in science and engineering programmes and skills using earnings to reinvest which are implemented within North West universities, supply chain and NNL facilities of which a large component is in Cumbria. The Government welcomes the initiative of nuclear businesses, supply chain clusters, universities and innovators across Cumbria, the wider North West, and North Wales to work together through the North West Nuclear Arc. We believe our policies through the Nuclear Sector Deal and Nuclear Innovation Programme will support the North West Nuclear Arc to capitalise on the regions historic strengths in the nuclear sector. It was this Government that agreed a landmark Nuclear Sector Deal worth over £200m, as well as giving the go-ahead to Hinkley Point C, the first new nuclear power station in a generation.

Secondhand Goods: Certification Quality Marks

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effect on (a) charity shops and (b) other second hand retailers of plans to replace Conformité Européene markings with a UK mark in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Kelly Tolhurst: In the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal, the Government is taking the decision to adopt a continuity approach in some areas, such as CE marked products, and continue to recognise CE marking as now. This means that charity retailers and other second-hand retailers can continue to place second hand goods with CE marking on the UK market, as before, for a time-limited period. There will be no need to reassess or re-mark goods, thereby minimising costs to business and consumers.As products that meet EU requirements can continue to be placed on the UK market without any need for reassessment or re-marking, CE marked products will therefore not be required to be re-marked with a UK Marking. This includes second hand products.We will consult with business, including charity retailers, before taking any decision to end the period of recognition of the CE marking.

Retail Trade: Certification Quality Marks

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the period of time that will be provided to retailers to adapt to the replacement of Conformité Européene markings in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Kelly Tolhurst: In the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal, goods that are CE marked will continue to be recognised for a time-limited period. We recognise that adequate notice will need to be given to businesses of any change to the period in order to enable them to adapt. In the event of no deal, we will consult with businesses, including retailers, before taking any decision to end the period of recognition.

Secondhand Goods: Certification Quality Marks

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will take steps to ensure that charity shops will not be required to change Conformité Européene labels to UK labels on existing stock on 29 March 2019 in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Kelly Tolhurst: In the unlikely event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal, the Government is taking the decision to adopt a continuity approach to minimise disruption to businesses and consumers. This means that goods that meet EU regulatory requirements, including those with a CE Marking, will still be able to be placed on the UK market for a time-limited period after 29 March 2019. This rule applies to goods sold in charity shops, therefore charity shops will not need relabel their products on 29 March 2019. As retailers of second hand goods, they will, however, remain responsible for ensuring the products that they place on the market are safe.

Secondhand Goods: Certification Quality Marks

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether secondhand goods with a CE label can continue to be sold by charity shops in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Kelly Tolhurst: CE marking is a declaration that a product complied with relevant EU legislation when the product was initially placed on the EU market. If a product has already been placed on the market and is then later sold as second hand, it does not generally have to be relabelled. If the UK leaves without a deal, the Government has announced a time-limited continuity approach to minimise disruption to businesses and consumers. This will mean that CE marked goods – whether new or second hand – can continue to be sold in the UK. Charity shops will, therefore, still be able to sell second-hand goods labelled with the CE Marking, as long as those goods were compliant at the time they were initially placed on the UK market, and are still safe.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Iran: Press TV

Anne-Marie Trevelyan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the (a) budget of Press TV and (b) level of investment it receives from the Iranian State; and what assessment he has made of Press TV's level of editorial independence.

Alistair Burt: We assess that Press TV is part of state-controlled Iranian media, and as such it is not independent. We cannot currently assess Press TV’s budget or the level of investment it receives from the Iranian state. Press TV’s license to broadcast in the UK was revoked by Ofcom in 2012.

Venezuela: Money Laundering

Andrew Lewer: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether the Government is taking steps to identify (a) individuals and (b) institutions in the UK which have (i) facilitated and (ii) benefited from the movement of stolen and laundered Venezuelan funds through the UK; and which partners the Government is working with to (A) identify and (B) freeze all monies and assets in the UK that are Maduro regime pending transfer of those monies to the control of the government of interim President Juan Guaido.

Sir Alan Duncan: The EU agreed targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against 18 individuals with senior positions in the Maduro regime. The UK is discussing with EU partners the possibility of increasing the number of individuals subject to sanctions.In addition, the Government is currently considering what further bilateral measures might be implemented to increase pressure on the Maduro regime.

Central European University

Lloyd Russell-Moyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with (a) the Hungarian Government and (b) his counterparts in the EU on the future of the Central European University in Budapest.

Sir Alan Duncan: The Foreign Secretary has not discussed this matter with his Hungarian or EU counterparts. However, both the former Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, and our Embassy in Budapest have discussed it with the Hungarian Government. If and when we have concerns, we raise them privately with our Hungarian counterparts, as you do with friends and allies.

India: Pakistan

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of the recent escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan.

Mark Field: We condemn in the strongest terms last week's appalling terror attack in Pulwama. The thoughts of the British Government are with the victims and their families. We are engaging the Governments of both India and Pakistan to encourage them to find diplomatic solutions and refrain from actions that could jeopardise regional stability. We are also working with the international community and through the UN Security Council to ensure that the perpetrators of the Pulwama attack are brought to justice.

Three Seas Initiative

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support his Department plans to provide to the Three Seas Initiative.

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he plans to hold discussions with the Three Seas Initiative to explore future avenues for mutual cooperation.

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of the UK becoming an observer to the Three Seas Initiative.

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make it his policy to support enhancing the diversity of energy supply in Europe through the Three Seas Initiative.

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential of the Three Seas Initiative to enhance regional cooperation and development.

Sir Alan Duncan: We support initiatives to strengthen and diversify the European energy market and welcome the efforts of the participants in the Three Seas Initiative to promote cooperation and development across the region. We have strong relationships with the participating countries and will continue to discuss opportunities for mutual cooperation with them, particularly on issues of such strategic importance, including through the Three Seas Initiative.

Sudan: Economic Situation

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with the North Sudanese Government on economic support for that country.

Harriett Baldwin: ​The UK continue to urge the Government of Sudan to deliver much needed economic reforms for the benefit of all Sudanese citizens, and to continue to make improvements to the humanitarian and development operating environment. Most recently, officials from the Department of International Development discussed development work in Sudan, specifically the Darfur Development Strategy refresh, with senior officials in the Government of Sudan on 21 February.

Sierra Leone: Politics and Government

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his counterpart in Sierra Leone on the national emergency declared in that country.

Harriett Baldwin: The Government is aware that the President of Sierra Leone has declared a national emergency on the prevalence of sexual and gender-based violence. The high rates are alarming: 56 per cent of women in Sierra Leone report experiencing physical violence. This month, the Sierra Leone-based Rainbo Initiative reported 2800 sexual assaults committed against girls and women since the start of 2018.The British Government regularly raises concerns about sexual and gender-based violence with the Government of Sierra Leone. The High Commissioner to Sierra Leone met the First Lady of Sierra Leone, a prominent campaigner, on 12 February 2019 to discuss the issue. We welcome President Bio's recent steps to establish a new police department that solely investigates sexual offenses involving children and a special court focusing on such cases.

Human Rights

Ann Clwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when his Department plans to publish its guidelines for supporting human rights defenders.

Mark Field: The Minister of State for the Commonwealth and the UN is committed to making UK support for human rights defenders more transparent. Officials are working in consultation with NGOs to publish a document setting out UK support for human rights defenders in 2019.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Procurement

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many suppliers have been excluded from bidding for contracts as a result of not complying with the criteria set out in the guidance entitled, Procurement policy note 03/14: promoting tax compliance, in each year since 2014.

Sir Alan Duncan: Authority to enter into contracts is devolved to directorates and departments within the FCO in London as well as the global network of overseas missions. Relevant data to answer this question is not held centrally and could not be collated without disproportionate cost.

*No heading*

Chris Williamson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Turkish counterpart on ending the isolation of Abdullah Ocalan in line with International and Turkish domestic law and bring an end to hunger strikes in that country.

Sir Alan Duncan: British Embassy officials discussed the imprisonment of Abdullah Öcalan with Turkish officials in mid-January. They also covered the hunger strikes in support of Abdullah Öcalan by Kurdish prisoners, including Leyla Guven MP. We are pleased to note that she was recently released from prison. We expect the Turkish authorities to ensure that prisoners' human rights are observed, including access to medical treatment.

Yemen: Conflict Resolution

Louise Haigh: What recent diplomatic steps he has taken to help pursue a resolution to the conflict in Yemen.

Alistair Burt: The situation in Yemen is of great concern to the government and the UK remains at the forefront of the diplomatic response. Most recently, the Foreign Secretary co-hosted the Yemen Ministeral Quad with US Secretary of State Pompeo on 13 Februrary in Warsaw. At this meeting, we highlighted our continued commitment to progress on Yemen, which is at a critical juncture.

Venezuela: Presidents

Andrew Bridgen: What recent discussions he has had with his international counterparts on the status of the presidency in Venezuela.

Sir Alan Duncan: On 24 January, the Foreign Secretary discussed Venezuela with Vice-President Pence and Secretary of State Pompeo in Washington, and further discussed Venezuela at a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Bucharest on 30 January.On 26 January, I represented the UK at the UN Security Council where I discussed Venezuela with European and regional counterparts. On 4 Feburary, I went to Ottawa for the meeting of Lima Group countries, where I discussed Venezuela with regional and Foreign Ministers.

Kashmir: Terrorism

Bob Blackman: What diplomatic steps he has taken to support India following the recent terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir.

Mark Field: The UK government unequivocally condemns the appalling terror attacks in Pulwama on 14 Februrary. We are actively encouraging the Governments of both India and Pakistan to find diplomatic solutions and refrain from actions that could jeopardise regional stability. We are also working through the UN Security Council to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice.

Iraq: Politics and Government

Eddie Hughes: What recent diplomatic steps his Department has taken to support peace and stability in Iraq.

Alistair Burt: I visited Iraq last month and held useful discussions with leaders from the Government of Iraq and Kurdistan Regional Governemnt. We discussed how the UK and Iraq could cooperate together to promote peace and stability in Iraq. I announced a further £30 million in funding to help rebuild Iraq and reinvigorate the economy.

Yemen: Security

Kevin Brennan: What recent assessment he has made of the security situation in Yemen.

Alistair Burt: The situation in Yemen is of great concern to the government and the UK remains at the forefront of the diplomatic response. Most recently, the Foreign Secretary co-hosted the Yemen Ministeral Quad with US Secretary of the State Pompeo on 13 February in Warsaw. At this meeting, we highlighted our continued commitment to progress on Yemen, which is at a critical juncture.

Press Freedom

Dr Matthew Offord: What steps he is taking to protect the rights and freedoms of journalists throughout the world.

Mark Field: A free media is the life blood of democracy. This is why the Foreign Secretray has put the resources of the FCO behind a global media freedom campaign. The Foreign Secretary was delighted to announce that he and his Canadian counterpart, the Honorable Chrystia Freeland, will co-host a major international conference in London on 10-11 July. My noble friend Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon has extended our invitation to the world's Foreign Ministers at the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Elections

Mr Virendra Sharma: What recent steps his Department has taken to support free and fair elections internationally.

Mark Field: We support elections by providing financial and technical assistance to international organisations that carry out election observations missions; in particular the European Union, the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe, and the Commonwealth. In 2018, the UK contributed observers to Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe missions in Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Montenegro, Macedonia (now North Macedonia) and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Venezuela: Presidents

Andrew Lewer: What recent discussions he has had with his international counterparts on the status of the presidency in Venezuela.

Sir Alan Duncan: On 24 January, the Foreign Secretary discussed Venezuela with Vice-President Pence and Secretary of State Pompeo in Washington, and further discussed Venezuela at a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Bucharest on 30 January.On 26 January, I represented the UK at the UN Security Council where I discussed Venezuela with European and regional counterparts. On 4 Feburary, I went to Ottawa for the meeting of Lima Group countries, where I discussed Venezuela with regional Foreign Ministers.

Department for Exiting the European Union

Department for Exiting the European Union: Procurement

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many suppliers have been excluded from bidding for contracts as a result of not complying with the criteria set out in the guidance entitled, Procurement policy note 03/14: promoting tax compliance, in each year since the creation of his Department.

Chris Heaton-Harris: The Department have not directly excluded any suppliers from bidding for contracts on the basis of PPN 03/14.

Department of Health and Social Care

Postnatal Depression

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the conclusions of the June 2017 National Childbirth Trust report entitled The Hidden Half: Bringing postnatal mental illness on a lack of support for new mothers with mental health issues.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The Department is aware of the National Childbirth Trust’s ‘Hidden Half’ report and campaign, which are making an important contribution to the debate around the need to develop and improve perinatal mental health services. The NHS Long Term Plan includes a commitment for a further 24,000 women to be able to access specialist perinatal mental health care by 2023/24, building on the additional 30,000 women who will access these services each year by 2020/21 under pre-existing plans as set out in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health. Specialist care will also be available from preconception to 24 months after birth, which will provide an extra year of support. General practitioners and primary care teams have a crucial role in supporting the identification of perinatal mental illness and treatment, and are part of an integrated pathway of services. This includes monitoring early onset conditions, providing pre-conception counselling and referring women to specialist mental health services, including Improving Access to Psychological Therapies and specialist perinatal community teams, if necessary. Over £1.2 million was provided in 2017 to enable the training of primary care, maternity and mental health staff to increase awareness and skills related to perinatal mental health.

St James Hospital Portsmouth

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the value was of the bid submitted by Portsmouth City Council for the St. James Hospital site in Milton, Portsmouth.

Stephen Hammond: NHS Property Services treats all bids as commercial in confidence.

Non-ionizing Radiation

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment report on the health effects of UV radiation; and whether he plans to implement the recommendations in that report.

Steve Brine: In 2009 the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE) provided advice on the health effects from ultraviolet (UV) radiation in their 13th report. This related to the effects form sunbed use because of the evidence accumulating about the particular associations with artificial tanning devices. The committee has not produced any additional advice or recommendations on the general risks of UV exposure since their statement in 1992 about the general impacts of UV exposure. As a result, the Sunbeds Regulation Act 2010 was implemented to prohibit under-18s from using sunbeds. Local authorities are responsible for enforcing the regulations and carry out inspections. The Department and the Health and Safety Executive have published guidance to support the enforcement and safe use of sunbeds, and Public Health England (PHE) continues to monitor the evidence on the impacts of the use of sunbeds. PHE discourages the use of sunbeds for cosmetic tanning and provides information to increase awareness of the health risks of excessive exposure to UV radiation and advice for people to protect themselves. Further information can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ultraviolet-radiation-and-sunscreen An awareness campaign on the signs of skin cancer has also been carried out by PHE and NHS England. PHE provides independent and expert advices on a range of topics, including UV radiation and staying safe in the sun. Further information can be found at the following links: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/public-health-england https://www.gov.uk/government/news/spring-sun-advice-from-public-health-england

Hospitals: Waiting Lists

Lloyd Russell-Moyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to consult patients before changes are made to NHS waiting times targets.

Stephen Hammond: The clinically-led review of standards was announced by the Prime Minister in June 2018. The review is considering the appropriateness of operational standards for physical and mental health relating to planned, unplanned urgent or emergency care, as well as cancer. In the interest of patient safety, we are committed to ensuring that any changes to waiting time standards are based on clinical evidence. The Long Term Plan provides a platform upon which innovative models of patient care can and are being developed. In that context, the NHS National Medical Director has been working with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, Healthwatch England and many others to consider what matters most to patients, on the clinical issues with the current target regime, and what National Health Service staff believe will help them provide the best quality care for patients. The review will report its interim findings in the spring of 2019, after which any recommended changes arising from the Clinical Standards Review will be carefully tested across the NHS and be subject to a rigorous approach before they are implemented. Any changes should, and will, only seek to further strengthen current operational standards. Any changes to the NHS Constitution will be consulted on as is legally required.

NHS: Fees and Charges

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending entitlement to discounted (a) prescriptions, (b) eye tests and (c) dental treatment to (i) apprentices earning the apprentice rate of the minimum wage and (ii) all other apprentices.

Steve Brine: The Department has extensive arrangements in place to help people access prescriptions, eye sight tests and dental treatment. This includes a broad range of National Health Service charge exemptions for certain medical conditions and related to age or entitlement to certain social security benefits. The Department has no current plans to amend these exemptions. Apprentices on a low income, who do not qualify for an exemption, may be eligible for full or partial help with prescription charges, dental treatment charges and the cost of sight tests, glasses and contact lenses through application to the NHS Low Income Scheme. On prescription charges, to support those with greatest need who do not qualify for an exemption or the low-income scheme, prescription prepayment certificates are available. A holder of a 12-month certificate can get all the prescriptions they need for just £2 per week.

Mental Illness: Community Care

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether powers exist to compel an individual to accept mental health treatment in the community.

Jackie Doyle-Price: An individual cannot be compelled to have treatment in the community if they do not want it. For individuals who have been detained under the Mental Health Act 1983, section 17A of the Act makes provision for Community Treatment Orders. This allows conditions to be placed on an individual when in the community, following detention under s3 or s37 of the Mental Health Act. If conditions are not followed, and an individual’s mental health declines, they can be recalled back to hospital for treatment.

HIV Infection: Drugs

Lloyd Russell-Moyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with (a) NHS England, (b) Public Health England and (c) local authorities on achieving the Government's commitment to double the number of places on the PrEP Impact Trials.

Steve Brine: On 30 January, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced that the Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Impact trial would be expanded to 26,000 people. Work is underway with partners to take this forward. The PrEP Oversight Board has requested information on local capacity to make the additional places available, and will review this later in February.

Continuing Care: Finance

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timescale is for Care Commissioning Groups to request information from relevant (a) medical and (b) care organisations during a continuing healthcare appeal.

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the length of time required is for a Care Commissioning Group to respond to a continuing healthcare appeal.

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what length of time is set for a (a) medical and (b) care organisation to respond to a request for information by a Care Commissioning Group in relation to a continuing healthcare appeal.

Caroline Dinenage: The National Framework for Continuing Healthcare and NHS Funded Nursing Care (October 2018) requires that all clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have a local resolution process for responding to requests for reviews of Continuing Healthcare eligibility decisions. The National Framework specifies that local resolution processes should initially involve an informal two-way meeting between the CCG and the individual or their representative. Where a formal meeting is required, this could result in the CCG requesting further information from other organisations. Under the National Framework, CCGs are responsible for developing, delivering and publishing a resolution process which includes timescales. The National Framework specifies that CCGs should deal with requests for review of eligibility decisions in a timely manner. NHS England is responsible for holding CCGs to account if they are not following the National Framework.

Continuing Care: Finance

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the length of time required is for a (a) medical and (b) care organisation to respond to a request for information by a Care Commissioning Group in relation to a continuing healthcare application.

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether there is a minimum period of notice given to families of those being given a continuing healthcare assessment to ensure they have adequate time to attend the assessment.

Caroline Dinenage: The National Framework for Continuing Healthcare and NHS Funded Nursing Care October 2018, states that after a clinical commissioning group (CCG) receives a positive checklist they should in most cases make the eligibility decision within 28 calendar days. CCGs are responsible for setting their own time periods for each ‘stage’ of the process including notice periods to families and timeline expectations from third parties regarding requests for information.

Integrated Care Systems: Hampshire and Isle of Wight

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the evidential basis was for his Department's decision to create an Integrated Care System covering Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential negative consequences of introducing Integrated Care Systems on subsidiarity and tailored approaches to local needs.

Stephen Hammond: NHS England’s Five Year Forward View set out a clear vision on how to close the gaps of the health and wellbeing of the population, the quality of care provided, and the finances and efficiencies of NHS services. The NHS’s chosen vehicle to deliver this is sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs) which bring together National Health Service organisations and local councils together in footprints covering the whole of England. The areas to be covered by all STPs, including Hampshire and Isle of Wight, were decided through discussions between the leaders of local and national NHS bodies. Factors that were considered included partnership work already under way between organisations, local government boundaries, and where patients go to receive treatment. The NHS Long Term Plan confirmed that all STPs will become Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) by April 2021. ICSs will be expected to work in partnership with local authorities, to make collective decisions on population health, service redesign and the implementation of the Long Term Plan. The Plan set out a further requirement that ICSs establish a partnership board, drawn from and representing commissioners, trusts, primary care networks, local authorities, the voluntary and community sector and other local partners. This will be accompanied by a new ICS accountability and performance framework that will consolidate the current combination of local accountability arrangements that exists, and provide a consistent and comparable set of performance measures which could be used to assess ICSs.

Fibromyalgia

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to meet with fibromyalgia charities and organisations.

Steve Brine: Ministers at the Department regularly meet with charities and organisations to discuss many issues. However there are no current plans to meet with fibromyalgia charities and organisations.

Eating Disorders: Health Services

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 October 2018 to Question 179179 on Eating Disorders, and with reference to recommendation two on page five of the  report entitled, Ignoring the alarms: How NHS eating disorder services are failing patients, published by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman on 6 December 2017, what plans he has to achieve parity between adult eating disorder services and child and adolescent services; what funding has been allocated to achieve that parity; and if he will make a statement.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The Government takes seriously the report of the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman (PHSO) ‘Ignoring the alarms: how NHS eating disorder services are failing patients’, including the recommendation to achieve parity between adult eating disorders services and children and young people services. NHS England is now working to understand the geographical variation of current services, and the cost and workforce required to achieve parity with children and young people’s eating disorder services. NHS England has set up a working group, chaired by Professor Tim Kendall, the NHS England and NHS Improvement National Clinical Director for Mental Health, to address the PHSO’s recommendations and take them into account in planning for improvements to eating disorder services. The NHS Long Term Plan, published on 7 January 2019, sets out NHS England’s proposals to improve care for adults include maintaining and developing new services for those who have the most complex needs. The recently published ‘NHS Operational Planning and Contracting Guidance 2019/20 Annex B: Guidance for operational and activity plans - assurance statements’ to accompany the NHS Planning Guidance for 2019/20 makes clear that these services include services for adults with eating disorders.

Health Services: British Nationals Abroad

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with relevant health charities on ensuring they have advance warning of the publication of new advice on travel in the EU and EEA in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to ensure the safety of patients with pre-existing conditions, which are not covered by insurance, who travel in the EU and would no longer be covered by reciprocal healthcare agreements in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that reciprocal agreements with EU Member States and Members of the EEA for the provision of health care to UK citizens travelling temporarily to those countries will be in place after the UK leaves the EU; and what the timetable is for those arrangements.

Stephen Hammond: The United Kingdom Government is seeking agreements with Member States, so that no individual will face sudden changes to their healthcare cover. People requiring treatment for their pre-existing conditions when travelling should always seek advice from their doctor and specialist unit before booking travel. They should also contact the chosen specialist administrator at the destination of travel to ensure their treatment is covered after 29 March 2019 in a ‘no deal’ scenario. Any charges to the patient should be discussed and agreed before booking travel. The Department has been in discussion with a number of stakeholders on reciprocal healthcare after the UK leaves the EU. Any new travel advice will be updated on GOV.UK and the NHS website as the circumstances change, including for travellers who have pre-existing conditions.

Ambulance Services: Standards

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of ambulance response times in each year since 1997.

Stephen Hammond: National Health Service ambulance trusts transitioned to new standards in December 2017, following a rigorous and independent evaluation of the clinically-led Ambulance Response Programme (ARP). As a result, data is not comparable pre- and post the ARP. National and individual ambulance NHS trust level performance data is published monthly by NHS England, and can be found at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/

Ambulance Services: East Midlands

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the average response time of ambulances in the East Midlands by (a) constituency and (b) county, in the latest period for which data is available.

Stephen Hammond: Information is not available in the format requested. National and individual ambulance National Health Service trust level performance is available and published monthly by NHS England and can be found at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/

Health Services: Greater London

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much and what proportion of total NHS funding is spent in the Greater London area in each of the last five years.

Stephen Hammond: Spending in Greater London and as a percentage of the total NHS England Mandate is shown in the following table. The spending may include services for people not living in London.Financial yearTotal spending for Greater London (£ million)Greater London spend as a % of total NHS England Mandate2017-1818,60017%2016-1717,80017%2015-1617,30017%2014-1516,70017%2013-1416,20017%Notes:The spend includes all areas of direct commissioning and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), and also relevant administration and programme budgets.Commissioning categories included: CCG direct commissioning; health and justice; NHS England central programme costs; NHS England running costs; other; primary care and secondary dental; public health; social care; and, specialised commissioning.The spend figures for CCGs are presented on an International Financial Reporting Standards basis, compared against the total resource departmental expenditure limit mandate for NHS England.The spend figures may exclude some transformation budgets that are deployed nationally.The spend figures for specialised include all specialised spend with London providers, which will include spend on patients from outside of London.

Epilepsy: Drugs

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 31 January 2019 to Question 211841, what specific steps his Department has taken to ensure the supply of epilepsy medication in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Stephen Hammond: We understand that epilepsy medicines are vitally important to many people in this country. Our contingency plans aim to ensure that the supply of epilepsy medicines and other essential medicines to patients is not disrupted in all European Union exit scenarios, including in the event of a ‘no deal’ exit. In August 2018, the Department wrote to all pharmaceutical companies that supply prescription-only and pharmacy medicines to the United Kingdom that come from, or via, the EU/European Economic Area asking them to ensure a minimum of six weeks’ additional supply in the UK, over and above existing business-as-usual buffer stocks, by 29 March 2019. On 7 December, the Government published updated reasonable worst-case scenario border disruption planning assumptions in the event of a ‘no deal’ EU exit. Medicines and medical products are prioritised in cross-Government planning, and the Department is working with relevant partners across Government and industry to ensure we have sufficient roll-on, roll-off freight capacity on alternative routes to enable these vital products to continue to move freely into the UK. Throughout the implementation of our plans, we have received very good engagement from industry who share our aims of ensuring that the supply of medicines and medical products can continue unhindered in the event of a ‘no deal’ EU exit.

Dental Services: Cumbria

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many new adult patients have been registered by each NHS dental practice in South Lakeland in each of the last 20 years.

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to increase the number of new adult patients registered by NHS dental practices in Cumbria.

Steve Brine: The data is not held centrally in the format requested. NHS England is responsible on behalf of Secretary of State for Health and Social Care commissioning dental services to meet local need and assessing the level of that need. NHS England advises that it is aware of and taking action to address identified shortfalls in dental provision particularly, but not exclusively, in South Cumbria. Action taken already in South Cumbria has included offering practices additional funding to take on additional patients.

Accident and Emergency Departments: Standards

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on patient care of removing A&E waiting time targets.

Stephen Hammond: The Prime Minister announced a clinically-led review of standards in June 2018. The review is considering the appropriateness of operational standards for physical and mental health relating to planned, unplanned urgent or emergency care, as well as cancer. The Review is being led by NHS England’s National Medical Director, Professor Stephen Powis. In the interest of patient safety, we are committed to ensuring that any changes to waiting time standards are based on clinical evidence. Any changes should, and will, only seek to further strengthen current operational standards. The Review will report its interim findings in the spring of 2019, after which any recommended changes will be carefully field-tested across the National Health Service, before they are implemented.

Heart Diseases: Transplant Surgery

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have had an operation for an artificial heart have been undertaken in the NHS.

Steve Brine: The information is not available in the format requested.

Exercise

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps the NHS has taken to promote the health benefits of regular exercise.

Steve Brine: The Government recognises the health benefits of regular exercise. The Chief Medical Officer has commissioned an evidence based review of physical activity and health which will be published later this year. The ‘One You’ Campaign developed by Public Health England and the National Health Service provides information around a range of topics and provides the tools to encourage people to make better choices today that can have a huge influence on their health, and could prevent diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cancer and heart disease, and reduce the risk of suffering a stroke or living with dementia, disability and frailty in later life.

Rare Diseases: Drugs

John Lamont: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing a UK-wide scheme for the purchase and distribution of expensive drugs and medical supplies that are used to treat rare conditions.

Steve Brine: We have no plans to assess the potential merits of implementing a United Kingdom-wide scheme for the purchase and distribution of expensive drugs and medical supplies that are used to treat rare conditions. It is for the National Health Service in England and the devolved administrations to make decisions in the best interest of their patients, including those with rare diseases, to ensure access to the medicines and medical supplies they need.

Continuing Care

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether a qualified witness independent of the relevant clinical commissioning group is required to be involved in a patient's continuing healthcare assessment.

Caroline Dinenage: The National Framework for Continuing Healthcare requires that a multidisciplinary team (MDT) must assess whether an individual has a primary health need. This MDT must comprise at least two professionals who are from different healthcare professions, or one professional who is from a healthcare profession and one person who is responsible for assessing persons who may have needs for care and support under part 1 of the Care Act 2014. The MDT should usually include both health and social care professionals and, as far as is reasonably practicable, the clinical commissioning group (CCG) must consult with the relevant local authority before making any decision about an individual’s eligibility for NHS Continuing Healthcare. A local authority must, when requested to do so by a CCG, co-operate with the CCG in arranging for persons to participate in a MDT. In addition to this, the individual and, where appropriate, their representative should be enabled to play a central role in the assessment process.

Pain: Medical Treatments

Martin Vickers: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS Long Term Plan, what assessment he has made of the effect of developments in digital care on the provision of pain pathway services.

Martin Vickers: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to prevent worsening chronicity of pain in people suffering from chronic pain.

Steve Brine: The routine assessment and management of pain is a required competency of all healthcare professionals. Many patients with chronic pain can be successfully supported and managed through routine primary and secondary care pain management services. Approaches to treatment are not all pharmacological; education in self-management techniques to aid symptom control may also be appropriate for some patients. As set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, published on 7 January 2019, low back and neck pain is the greatest cause of years lost to disability, with chronic joint pain or osteoarthritis affecting over 8.75 million people in the United Kingdom. In the Long Term Plan NHS England committed to build on work already undertaken to ensure patients will have direct access to musculoskeletal First Contact Practitioners (FCP). 98% of sustainability and transformation partnerships have confirmed pilot sites for FCP and 55% of pilots are already underway. NHS England will expand the number of physiotherapists working in primary care networks, enabling people to see the right professional first time, without needing a general practitioner referral. NHS England will also expand access to support such as the online version of ESCAPE-pain, Enabling Self-management and Coping with Arthritic Pain through Exercise, a digital version of the well-established, face-to-face group programme.

General Practitioners: Overseas Companies

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of GP practices are administered by healthcare companies based abroad.

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of GP consortia that are run for profit by overseas-based medical insurance firms.

Steve Brine: This information is not collected or held centrally.

Abortion

Sir Edward Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2019 to Question 217544 on Spina Bifida: Surgery, if his Department will make it its policy to provide pain relief to unborn babies of a similar age undergoing a termination.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The Department does not set clinical practice. To support clinical practice, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has considered the issue of fetal pain and awareness in its guidelines ‘The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion’ and ‘Fetal Awareness: Review of Research and Recommendations for Practice’, which are available at the following links: https://www.rcog.org.uk/globalassets/documents/guidelines/abortion-guideline_web_1.pdf https://www.rcog.org.uk/globalassets/documents/guidelines/rcogfetalawarenesswpr0610.pdf

Hospitals: Cash Dispensing

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he issued guidance to NHS hospitals on the phasing out of pay-to-use cash machines.

Stephen Hammond: Decisions on the provision of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) at hospitals are made by National Health Service trusts locally. Guidance has not been issued on ATMs, but there is more general guidance on income generation can be found at the following link: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130124072327/http:/www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_4130668.pdf Local decisions need to include an assessment of the need for supporting patients and visitors to access cash. The use of electronic payments is increasingly common in NHS hospitals. As with other areas of income generation, in the event that a surplus is made by the trusts after costs are offset, this is used to improve clinical services.

Cancer: Health Professions

Thangam Debbonaire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that the Health Education England phase two cancer workforce plan co-ordinates with the workforce implementation plan in the NHS Long Term Plan.

Steve Brine: Health Education England (HEE) published its first ever Cancer Workforce Plan in December 2017. HEE intended to publish a second phase, longer-term strategy that looked at the cancer workforce needs beyond 2021. This work was started and stakeholders from within the National Health Service and the charitable sector contributed to the early discussions. This work has since been superseded by publication of the NHS Long Term Plan in January 2019. My Rt. hon. Friend Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has subsequently commissioned Baroness Dido Harding, working closely with Sir David Behan, to lead a number of programmes to engage with key NHS interests to develop a detailed workforce implementation plan. These programmes will consider detailed proposals to grow the workforce rapidly, including staff working on cancer, consider additional staff and skills required, build a supportive working culture in the NHS and ensure first rate leadership for NHS staff.

NHS: Drugs

Emma Dent Coad: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 February 2019 to Question 215257, on NHS: drugs, what information his Department holds on the level of medicine shortages in the last 12 months.

Steve Brine: Medicines shortages are a routine issue that the Department constantly manages. The Department works closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England and others operating in the supply chain to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when they do arise. The Department receives regular reports from the pharmaceutical industry about impending medicine supply issues that may affect United Kingdom patients. From January 2019, it became a mandatory requirement that the pharmaceutical industry must report this information to us in a timely manner. However, not all the issues of which the Department are notified will result in a medicine shortage as the supply team will work behind the scenes using a host of tools to help mitigate and prevent an issue from impacting patients.

NHS: DHL

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the proposed shipping route to be operated by DHL for products supplied to the NHS on a 24 to 72 hours timeframe in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal, what assurances he has sought from DHL that the issues which led to the supply-chain breakdown in 2018 that occurred during DHL's contract with Kentucky Fried Chicken have been resolved; and if he will make a statement.

Stephen Hammond: The contractual arrangement that the Department has with DHL is unrelated to any other contracts that they may operate for different clients. The Department has a team working closely with DHL on all aspects of the operational mobilisation and assuring that this contingency will be in place ahead of the date that the United Kingdom exits the European Union.

Health Services: Reciprocal Arrangements

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many times European Health Insurance Cards were used by UK citizens abroad in the past year.

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many European Health Insurance Cards have been issued to people over the age of 70.

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many times European Health Insurance Cards were used by UK citizens abroad to support the treatment of pre-existing conditions in the last year.

Stephen Hammond: There were 118,684 accepted claims when a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) was used, in the last 12 months. There are 3,108,739 United Kingdom-issued EHICs in circulation for people aged over 70. This is based on cards which have not expired and the applicant’s age on the date the card was issued, and not their current age. EHICs are valid for five years after their issue date. Information is not available on the number of times EHICs were used by UK citizens abroad to support the treatment of pre-existing conditions in the last year.

Health Services: Reciprocal Arrangements

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many times European Health Insurance Cards were used by people over the age of 70 in each of the last five years.

Stephen Hammond: The following table shows the number of European Health Insurance Card claims from people aged over 70 by year for the last five years:201429,632201535,518201643,121201738,271201823,172

NHS: Drugs

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has issued to Clinical Commissioning Groups on the provision of medicines in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal; and what the responsibility is of Clinical Commissioning Groups ensure adequate supplies of medicines in that event.

Stephen Hammond: The Department’s contingency plans aim to ensure that the supply of medicines to patients is not disrupted in all European Union exit scenarios, including in the event we exit the EU without a deal. We are confident that, if everyone does what they need to do, the supply of medicines will be uninterrupted in the event of exiting the EU without a deal. The Department is working closely with trade bodies, product suppliers, the health and care system in England, the devolved administrations and Crown Dependencies, to make detailed plans to ensure the continuation of the supply of medicines to the whole of the United Kingdom in the event of a no deal EU exit. On 23 August 2018, the Department sent a letter to all healthcare providers to advise of our ‘no deal’ EU exit medicines supply contingency plans. That letter highlighted the need for maintaining existing practices and that hospitals, general practitioners and community pharmacies throughout the UK do not need to take any steps to stockpile additional medicines, beyond their business as usual buffer stocks. A letter from Dr Keith Ridge CBE, the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer at NHS England, outlining the steps taken thus far to protect the continuity of supply for medicines was then sent out NHS services, including clinical commissioning groups, on 17 January 2019. More recently, on 4 February 2019, a further letter was sent out by Professor Keith Willett, EU Exit Strategic Commander and Medical Director for Acute Care and Emergency Preparedness, to clinical commissioning groups and trust Chief Executives reiterating the Department’s messaging and outlining the operational response that NHS England and NHS Improvement are undertaking at a national and regional level in preparation for a ‘no deal’ EU exit. This latest letter also includes links to previous correspondence and operational guidance.

NHS: Negligence

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish the cross-Government strategy on the costs of clinical negligence.

Steve Brine: The rising costs of clinical negligence are a major concern. As set out by the National Audit Office in their September 2017 report ‘Managing the Costs of Clinical Negligence in Hospital Trusts’, between 2006-07 and 2016-17, annual cash costs for clinical negligence quadrupled from £0.4 billion to £1.6 billion. In the same period the number of claims registered with NHS Resolution doubled from 5,300 to 10,600. Funds spent on clinical negligence claims are resources that are not available for patient care and this rate of rise is unsustainable. We are committed to tackling this issue and we are working intensively across Government, looking at all the drivers of cost. We will bring forward proposals in due course.

Cervical Cancer: Screening

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it remains his policy that the NHS is the primary provider for cervical cytology screening in England.

Steve Brine: The National Health Service will remain the primary provider for cervical cytology screening in England and cervical screening remains part of the General Medical Services contract. In November 2015, the UK National Screening Committee recommended that human papillomavirus (HPV) screening should replace the currently used liquid based cytology test as the primary screening for cervical disease. Following a review of its delivery strategy, NHS England commenced a one-stage procurement process to reconfigure provider laboratories to support the roll-out of HPV primary screening into the NHS Cervical Cancer Screening Programme in England. HPV primary screening is due to be rolled out in 2019. Once full implementation is achieved, all samples will be tested for HPV which causes more than 99% of cervical cancers. This could prevent around 600 cancers a year.

Asthma: Prescriptions

Sir David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to include asthma in the list of conditions which are exempt from the payment of prescription charges.

Sir David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the effect on people's health of prescription charges for asthma medicines.

Steve Brine: Extensive arrangements are already in place to help people afford National Health Service prescriptions. These include a broad range of prescription charge exemptions, for which someone with asthma may qualify. The Department has no current plans to amend these exemptions, including the list of medical conditions that provides exemption from prescription charges. People on a low income, who do not qualify for an exemption, may be eligible for full or partial help with prescription charges through application to the NHS Low Income Scheme. To support those with greatest need who do not qualify for an exemption or the NHS Low Income Scheme, prescription prepayment certificates are available. A holder of a 12-month certificate can get all the prescriptions they need for just £2 per week.

Department for International Development

Overseas Aid

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent steps she has taken to ensure the effectiveness Official Development Assistance.

Harriett Baldwin: Every project in DFID is rigorously appraised for efficiency and likely effectiveness before approval and is assessed against a robust monitoring framework to ensure it remains cost effective. The Independent Commission for Aid Impact said that DFID’s systems “improve the return on UK investment in aid” and recognised that DFID is “a global champion on Value for Money”. DFID is committed to supporting other government departments strengthen the quality of their aid spending and maximising their impact on poverty through an extensive offer of support.

Africa: Tax Evasion

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department has taken to reduce tax evasion in Africa.

Harriett Baldwin: Tackling tax evasion is a priority for DFID as part of our Transparency Agenda, Addis Tax Initiative commitments and the UK Anti-Corruption Strategy.  Since 2013 DFID has supported the Global Forum for the Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes through its International Tax Transparency Programme. The Global Forum helps countries tackle tax evasion by strengthening global tax transparency and international cooperation. The Global Forum now has over 150 members and DFID supports its Africa Initiative to strengthen transparency and the exchange of information across Africa.   HMRC and DFID continues to work alongside the Global Forum with other jurisdictions such as Egypt, Ghana and Nigeria; alongside the African Tax Administration Forum in Uganda and independently in Montserrat to support the implementation of the Automatic Exchange of Information.   DFID’s announcement on the 19 February of a new £47m package of support for Tax for Development will further boost efforts to help countries in Africa and elsewhere to tackle this important issue.

Africa: Taxation

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much additional tax revenue will be raised by Governments in Africa as a result of support by her Department by the year 2022-23.

Harriett Baldwin: DFID’s support will help strengthen developing country capacity to raise domestic resources, including through assistance in the implementation of international tax standards. Although many factors impact on revenue growth, so forecasts are not available, past DFID tax programmes have proved to be great value for money. For example, the OECD’s Tax Inspectors Without Borders initiative, which assists developing countries to implement international tax standards, has generated an additional £100 for every £1 spent on operating costs.

Developing Countries: UK Relations with EU

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions she has had with the EU on continuing co-operation on international development after the UK leaves the EU.

Harriett Baldwin: We are seeking a future partnership with the EU on international development to tackle shared global challenges in areas where it is in our mutual interest and represents the best value for taxpayers’ money. The Secretary of State and other DFID Ministers have discussed our future partnership with counterparts in the Commission during bilateral meetings and in the margins of international events. Any future UK participation in EU development programmes would require appropriate influence and oversight over UK funds and eligibility for UK organisations to bid for and to implement any UK funded programmes.

Alan Guttmacher Institute

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to her Department's paper entitled, Single Departmental Plan - Results Achieved by Sector in 2012-2018, Family Planning, what steps her Department has taken to verify the numbers of illegal backstreet abortions provided by the Guttmacher Institute; and whether her Department has conducted a separate estimate of those abortions.

Alistair Burt: DFID’s single departmental plan reports on the increase in family planning use from our programmes. From this, estimates are made, based on the best international expertise, on wider impact. The Guttmacher Institute’s reputation for producing high quality scientific research and data for evidence-based policy making on Sexual & Reproductive Health and Rights means we have confidence in these independent estimates. Other studies support the key Guttmacher Institute finding that unsafe abortion is a significant killer of women and restricting safe abortion does not make abortion less common, it just makes it less safe.

Niger: Marie Stopes International

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the Answer of 20 December 2018 to Question HL12251 on Kenya: Marie Stopes International, if he will publish the conclusions of the investigation into alleged illegal abortions practices by Marie Stopes International in Niger.

Alistair Burt: We have seen no evidence of any illegal activity in Niger on their part and no formal allegations have been made to us. DFID funds cannot be used to fund any illegal activities. We treat allegations of any improper use of funds extremely seriously. The process for reporting allegations is on our website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-international-development

Department for Education

Carers: Children and Young People

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of carers under the age of 18 in (a) the UK, (b) England, (c) Scotland, (d) Wales and (e) Northern Ireland.

Nadhim Zahawi: Holding answer received on 25 February 2019



An estimate of the number of carers under the age of 18 in England and Wales is collected by the Office of National Statistics through census data. Information on the number of carers under 18 in Scotland and Northern Ireland is a devolved matter.According to the 2011 census, there are almost 166,000 young carers aged 5 to 17 in England and Wales, although estimates from other studies using different methodologies or question wording to identify carers are much higher.In January 2017, the Department for Education published the omnibus survey report ‘The lives of young carers in England’: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-lives-of-young-carers-in-england. This was a significant piece of research carried out by the Department in partnership with Loughborough University looking to improve understanding of the numbers and needs of young carers and their families.The Department of Education and the Department of Health, Social Care have commissioned the Carers Trust to undertake a review of best practice in identifying young carers. This work is currently ongoing but by its conclusion should give us new insights into how schools, health and other providers can best achieve this in practice.

Pre-school Education: Finance

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of maintained nursery schools that would close if they received no further funding guarantee for the period after 2020.

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect on social mobility of the closure of maintained nursery schools.

Nadhim Zahawi: Maintained nursery schools (MNS) make a valuable contribution to improving the lives of some of our most disadvantaged children.MNS experience costs over and above those of other early years providers. That is why we are providing local authorities with around £60 million a year in supplementary funding to enable them to protect MNS funding.This arrangement is due to end in March 2020, and what happens after that will be determined by the next Spending Review. We are aware that the supplementary funding for MNS currently accounts for about a third of their budgets - owing to uncertainty over the exact date of the Spending Review, we are considering how best to handle transitional arrangements for a number of areas, including MNS.This government has an ambition to halve the proportion of children who finish reception year without the early communication and reading skills they need to thrive. To support this we are investing over £100 million in our social mobility programme. This includes £20 million in high quality, evidence-based training and professional development for pre-reception early years staff in disadvantaged areas; £26 million in a network of English hubs; and £10 million to understand ‘what works’ in partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation.This ambitious work is underpinned by our early education entitlements - where we are making record investment. This includes the entitlement to up to 15 hours of free early education for disadvantaged 2-year-olds. Since its introduction in 2013, over 700,000 2-year-olds have benefited and take-up has risen and is now 72%.

Young People: Unemployment

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people aged 16-19 were not in employment, education or training in (a) Ellesmere Port and Neston constituency, (b) Cheshire West and Chester unitary authority and (c) the North West of England in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Anne Milton: Figures for the number of people aged 16-19 not in employment, education or training (NEET) are not available at unitary authority or constituency level.The Department for Education’s definitive estimates for young people aged 16-18 NEET in England are published in the National Statistics release ‘Participation in education, training and employment’. This can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-neet. These estimates cannot be disaggregated to lower level geographies.The Department for Education also publishes estimates for England and the English regions based on quarterly Labour Force Survey (LFS) data. However, due to sample size limitations in the LFS data, it is not possible to produce reliable estimates at unitary authority or constituency level.Local authority level NEET estimates for England are published annually as transparency data from the department’s National Client Caseload Information System (NCCIS). For young people aged 16-17, local authorities are required to monitor the extent to which they are meeting their duty to participate in education or training through the NCCIS and figures for 2016/17 and 2017/18 are provided in the table attached. Prior to 2016/17, young people aged 18 were also tracked by local authorities and figures for 2013/14 to 2015/16 are also provided in the table attached.It should also be noted that there is a break in the time series as figures prior to 2016/17 had an adjustment applied to the NEET figures to include those whose activity was not known who were likely to be NEET. Post 2016/17 this adjustment was no longer applied and the NEET figures include all people whose activity was not known (in order to incentivise local authorities to better track their young people); as a result, these figures should be interpreted with caution.Estimates for academic year 2017/18 are published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neet-and-participation-local-authority-figures.Data prior to 2018 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neet-data-by-local-authority-2012-16-to-18-year-olds-not-in-education-employment-or-training.Also available are national statistics showing the destinations of pupils after key stage 4 (i.e. year 11, usually aged 16) and key stage 5 (after A levels or other level 3 qualifications, usually aged 18). See https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/destinations-of-ks4-and-ks5-pupils-2017.This release shows the proportion of students staying in education or going into employment or an apprenticeship for at least 2 terms. It also shows the percentage of students who do not sustain their activity and can be used as an approximation for numbers NEET. Time series data by local authority and parliamentary constituency covering destination years 2010/11 to 2016/17 is available as part of the additional and underlying data from the statistics page.



222656_NCCIS_Estimates_of_NEET_for_Cheshire
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Small Businesses: Apprentices

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to support small businesses in taking on apprentices.

Anne Milton: Apprenticeships offer businesses of all sizes an opportunity to make a sustainable investment in the training they need to grow and prosper.For businesses with fewer than 50 employees who take on apprentices aged 16-18 (or up to the age of 24 for care leavers), the government meets the full cost of training. All organisations who do not pay the apprenticeship levy benefit from very generous funding from government, which will rise to 95% of the cost of training and assessment in 2019.The new apprenticeships marketing campaign, Fire it Up, aims to increase the number of apprenticeship vacancies offered by employers, and incorporates a website featuring case studies from small businesses and information on the funding support available. It will continue to support employers to create new vacancies and publicise these on the ‘Find an Apprenticeship’ website.Small businesses are also able to benefit from transfers of apprenticeship levy funds, which enable levy-paying employers to use up to 10% of their annual levy funds (up to 25% from April 2019) to support apprenticeship starts in their supply chain or to meet local skills shortages.

T-levels: Work Experience

Stephen Metcalfe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure the supply of T-level industry placements in the science sector.

Anne Milton: It is important that employers from all industries are supported to deliver industry placements. We believe employers will benefit from offering industry placements, but recognise that this is a big change given the scale needed. We have already worked with a number of employers, including those from the science sector, to identify the main barriers and challenges to delivering industry placements. We also learnt more about these and the type of support that employers need from the industry placements pilot evaluation. As a result, we have invested £5 million into the National Apprenticeship Service to raise awareness and promote industry placements through their employer networks. This will include creating a streamlined ‘matchmaking’ service putting employers in touch with providers in their area.We are also considering what additional support employers require on a route by route basis to effectively plan and implement industry placements. Equally, we recognise that different placement models might be needed to accommodate different industries, students and locations. We have been carrying out extensive stakeholder engagement across different challenging industries, including employers from the science sector, to ensure industry placement policy generates placements that are meaningful, reflective of current industry practice and meet the needs of employers.

T-levels: Science

Stephen Metcalfe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether students will be able to progress from a science T-level to a laboratory technician apprenticeship incorporating a level 4 qualification.

Anne Milton: With additional teaching hours and a meaningful industry placement, we are confident that T levels will give students the knowledge and skills needed to get a skilled job, either immediately or after higher technical education (for example an appropriate level 4 apprenticeship where it is offered by an employer). The outline content for the Science T level has been developed by a panel of employers and other experts (including GlaxoSmithKline and the Royal Society of Chemistry), who have defined the skills needed to give students the best chance of progressing to a relevant job or higher level study, including a laboratory technician apprenticeship.T levels in Science, Healthcare Science and Health will roll out from September 2021. We recently launched the expression of interest process for providers wishing to deliver T levels in 2021.

Universities: Degrees

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of universities on the proposed introduction of two year degree courses.

Chris Skidmore: My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State meets with representatives of universities regularly to discuss the Department for Education agenda. I have discussed 2 year degree courses, in the context of discussions about accelerated degree courses, with representatives of several universities -including most recently Middlesex University and St Mary’s University Twickenham, both of whom are publicly funded providers of accelerated degrees.

Graduates: Employment

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to help university graduates secure graduate job roles.

Chris Skidmore: Employment outcomes for graduates are strong and, due to demand from employers, healthy increases have been seen in recent years. In 2016/17, over 90% of UK and other EU domiciled leavers were in work or further study 6 months after graduating and, of those employed, 79% were employed in highly-skilled and professional occupations. This compares to 89% and 73%, respectively in 2012/13.The government’s Industrial Strategy sets out a long-term plan to boost productivity by backing businesses to create good jobs and increase the earning power of people throughout the UK with investment in skills, industries and infrastructure. £120 million was provided to fund collaboration between businesses and universities to stimulate local innovation through the Strength in Places Fund.The Graduate Talent Pool is a government initiative which is designed to help new and recent graduates gain real work experience. This allows employers to advertise paid internships to new and recent graduates, free of charge.The higher education regulator, the Office for Students’ (OfS), primary aim is to ensure that higher education delivers positive outcomes for students and it has a regulatory focus to ensure that students are able to progress into employment or further study. The OfS supports graduate employment outcomes in a number of ways, including a Challenge Competition to boost local employment outcomes and the Institute of Coding which aims to boost UK digital skills and graduate outcomes.The government has been improving the information available to students to help them make informed choices when making decisions on higher education providers and subject choice. For example, Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Frameworks, Longitudinal Education Outcomes data and the Higher Education Open Data Competition we are running, which all provide information to prospective students.

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which Minister is responsible for children's play services; and what steps the Government is taking on ensuring that the UK upholds Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the right to play.

Nadhim Zahawi: Holding answer received on 25 February 2019



I am the Minister responsible for early years and childcare policy.The UK government remains fully committed to children’s rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and I reaffirmed our commitment in my Written Ministerial Statement on 20 November 2018.The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory Framework sets the regulatory standards for ‘learning and development’ and ‘safeguarding and welfare’ requirements for all early years providers caring for children from birth to 5. The framework defines 7 areas of learning and development and is clear that each area must be implemented through planned, purposeful play and through a mix of adult-led and child-initiated activity.The EYFS Statutory Framework is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2.

Pre-school Education: Free School Meals

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the payment to providers for universal free infant school meals above the current rate of £2.30 per meal which has applied since 2014.

Nadhim Zahawi: Holding answer received on 25 February 2019



The £2.30 per meal rate that we provide to schools to fund universal infant free school meals was set at the last Spending Review in 2015. The rate is based on the School Food Trust’s survey estimate of the average cost of a primary school meal, and on discussion with stakeholders and school food experts.Decisions about school funding beyond 2020 will be taken at the next Spending Review in 2019.

Pre-school Education: Free School Meals

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to assess the effect of the universal free infant school meals policy on (a) school standards and (b) pupils' wellbeing since its introduction in 2014.

Nadhim Zahawi: Holding answer received on 25 February 2019



We spend around £600 million every year ensuring 1.5 million infants in reception, year 1 and year 2 receive a free, nutritious meal at lunchtime. This ensures pupils are well nourished, develop healthy eating habits and can concentrate and learn.We know that a balanced and nutritious meal, which includes vegetables and fruit, is good for the health and well-being of children. By showing that more children are eating a school meal we are confident that our universal infant free school meal (UIFSM) policy is having a positive impact on children. We expect UIFSMs to bring longer term benefits for children’s health by instilling early in life healthy eating habits which will be carried forward into later years.Shared mealtimes are great for learning to talk, behave, take turns, be polite and share. Schools trialling free school meals in advance of the policy being introduced reported better behaviour and a nicer atmosphere as a result of pupils eating together every day.Since 2010 we’ve been reforming education and driving up school standards. 1.9 million more children are now being taught in good and outstanding schools than were in 2010, thanks in part to our reforms.

Soft Drinks: Taxation

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will ensure that under the comprehensive spending review at least the same level of revenue from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy is allocated to (a) the continuation of the healthy pupils capital fund and (b) other schemes for the improvement of children’s health.

Nadhim Zahawi: Holding answer received on 25 February 2019



Budget 2016 announced funding for a number of programmes linked to the revenue from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy. The department will receive £575 million during the current Spending Review period. Funding for 2020-21 onwards will be considered at the next Spending Review.£100 million of revenue generated from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy is being used for the Healthy Pupils Capital Fund. This one-year fund for 2018-19 is intended to improve children’s and young people’s physical and mental health by enhancing access to facilities for physical activity, healthy eating, mental health and wellbeing and medical conditions. These facilities include kitchens, dining facilities, changing rooms, playgrounds and sports facilities. There are no plans for the Healthy Pupils Capital Fund to continue beyond 2018-19.

Child Trust Fund

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding he has allocated to the Share Foundation's recovery programmes for Child Trust Fund accounts.

Nadhim Zahawi: The Department for Education has provided the Share Foundation with funding totalling £531,624 for administering the Junior Individual Savings Accounts scheme for children in care and care leavers. It does not provide funding for recovery programmes for Child Trust Funds.

Pupils: Hearing Impairment

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure the adequacy of support for deaf schoolchildren in mainstream schools.

Nadhim Zahawi: Holding answer received on 25 February 2019



I am determined that all children and young people, including those who are deaf or have a hearing impairment, receive the support they need to achieve the success they deserve.94% of pupils identified with hearing impairment as their primary type of need in January 2018 were in a state-funded mainstream school. It is therefore important that teachers in mainstream schools, as well as those in specialist settings, are equipped with the knowledge and skill to support their individual pupils, including those with a hearing impairment, to achieve their potential.In April 2018 the Whole School special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) consortium, led by nasen, were awarded £3.4 million for 2018-2020 to deliver a programme of work to equip the school workforce to deliver high quality teaching across all types of SEND, including hearing impairment. The programme of work aims to help schools identify and meet SEND training needs and build the specialist workforce. We are also reviewing the learning outcomes of specialist SEND qualifications, including the mandatory qualifications for teachers of classes with hearing impairment, to ensure they reflect the changing needs of the education system.

Schools: Social Workers

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what risk assessments his Department has made on proposals to place social workers in schools in the local authority areas of (a) Southampton, (b) Stockport and (c) Lambeth.

Nadhim Zahawi: Holding answer received on 25 February 2019



Southampton, Stockport and Lambeth have received funding from the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care to test having social workers in schools. As part of the application process the local authorities were required to provide the What Works Centre with information about key risks to delivery and the contingencies they would undertake to mitigate them. The local authorities provided their assessment as part of the application and these continue to be reviewed through project monitoring.

Pupils: Disadvantaged

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to tackle the disparity in attainment between white British pupils of key stage 4 age who (a) are and (b) are not eligible for free school meals.

Nick Gibb: The Government is committed to creating a truly meritocratic country, where everyone has a fair chance to go as far as their hard work will take them, regardless of background. To raise standards for all pupils, the Department has already reformed the secondary curriculum, assessment and accountability arrangements. The Department’s GCSE reforms mean that there is a rigorous suite of new qualifications, in line with the standards expected in countries with high performing education systems. The Department has also introduced new progress measures so that schools are accountable for the progress pupils make as well as their attainment.The Department is aware that the most significant factor affecting pupil attainment, across all ethnicities including white British children, is economic disadvantage. To tackle this, the Department has provided a total of £13.75 billion from April 2011 to March 2018 through the pupil premium to help schools improve the progress and attainment of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Department continues to provide this additional funding, which is £2.4 billion this year alone. Pupils recorded as eligible for free school meals now, or at any point in the last 6 years, are eligible for the pupil premium.

Children: Day Care

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to (a) improve affordability and (b) reduce complexity for parents to access childcare support for people in low-income families.

Nadhim Zahawi: The government provides significant support to help families with childcare affordability, including:15 hours of free childcare a week for all 3 and 4-year-olds, worth around £2,500 a year on average.15 hours of free childcare a week for disadvantaged 2-year olds, i.e. all those families in receipt of Universal Credit (UC), with an annual net earned income equivalent to or less than £15,400; families in receipt of benefits that currently qualify them for free school meals; those receiving working tax credits (with an annual gross household income of no more than £16,190); and children entitled to certain benefits or support for a disability or special educational need, looked-after children and certain children who have been in care, including those who have been adopted.30 hours of free childcare a week, for working parents of 3 and 4-year-olds. 30 hours is available to families where both parents are working (or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family), and each parent earns a weekly minimum equivalent to 16 hours at national minimum wage or living wage. This also includes self-employed parents.Childcare vouchers provided through some employers, allowing parents to save money by paying for childcare from their pre-tax salary.Help with up to 70% of childcare costs for people on low incomes through working tax credits, which in April 2016 increased to 85% through UC, subject to a monthly limit of £646 for one child or £1108 for 2 or more children.Tax-free childcare, for which 1.5 million families who have childcare costs will be eligible. For every £8 parents pay into an online account, the government will pay £2 – up to a maximum contribution of £2,000 per child each year, for children aged under 12. Parents of disabled children will receive extra support (worth up to £4,000 per child, each year and until their child is 17).To reduce complexity, the government has introduced a childcare calculator, which parents can use to identify which of the childcare offers they may be entitled to. There is also the childcare choices and GOV.UK websites, which provides detailed information about all of the government’s childcare offers and how parents can apply. Local authorities also have a statutory duty to provide parents with information, advice and guidance on their websites about how these childcare offers can be accessed locally.

Carers: Children

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that young carers are identified and adequately supported through their schooling.

Nadhim Zahawi: The government is committed to supporting children and young people to improve their health and wellbeing, and to protect them from excessive or inappropriate caring responsibilities that can impact on their education.The cross-government ‘Carers Action Plan’ (published June 2018), a 2 year programme of tailored work to support unpaid carers of all ages, aims to improve the identification of young carers; improving their educational opportunities and outcomes; providing support to young carers, particularly to vulnerable children; and improving access to services. The Children in Need review is also identifying how to spread best practice on raising educational outcomes.The Department for Education provides schools with £2.4 billion each year in additional funding through the pupil premium to support disadvantaged pupils. Each eligible pupil attracts £1,320 to primary schools and £935 to secondary schools. Eligibility for the pupil premium is based largely on current or past claims for free school meals. Some research with young carers aged 14-16 suggested that around 60% already attract the pupil premium through their eligibility for free school meals.We expect schools to make effective use of their pupil premium and do not tell them how to use it. Schools know their pupils best and will spend the grant to meet pupil needs, which may include needs arising from a caring role. Schools are held to account for their pupil premium use through school inspection and information in performance tables, and most schools are required to publish details about their pupil premium strategy and its impact.

European University Institute

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason he has withdrawn the European University Institute (EU Exit) Regulations 2019.

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to seek UK membership of the European University Institute Convention after the UK leaves the EU.

Chris Skidmore: The UK’s EU membership is inextricably linked to its current membership of the European University Institute Convention (EUIC). As a result of EU Exit, the UK will no longer be an EU member state and so, in a ‘no deal’ scenario, the UK’s membership of the EUIC will automatically cease on 29 March 2019. In a 'deal' scenario, the UK’s membership of this convention will continue for the duration of the implementation period.The Political Declaration sets out that we will establish general principles, terms and conditions for UK participation in EU programmes in areas of shared interest, and wider dialogues to allow us to share best practice and act together in our mutual interest. On this basis, we will explore with the European University Institute (EUI) options for future participation in its activities and we will work to ensure that UK students at the EUI will be able to complete their studies.The EUI (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, submitted on 7 February, were withdrawn because of a minor terminology error in the accompanying Explanatory Memorandum (the exact name of the instrument). They were resubmitted in corrected form on 19 February.

Special Educational Needs: Staff

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the recruitment of adequate numbers of Special Educational Needs Coordinators.

Nadhim Zahawi: Every mainstream school and academy must have a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) who is a qualified teacher. The recruitment of SENCOs is the responsibility of individual schools. On 28 January 2019, we published the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy and launched the Early Career Framework, which provides the starting point for a review of Initial Teacher Training content. In addition, the Whole Schools’ SEND consortium, led by nasen, are delivering a 2 year programme of work. The aim is to embed special educational need and disability within the school led system of school improvement in order to equip the workforce to deliver high quality teaching across all types of special educational needs (SEN). Part of that work is to undertake a review of the learning outcomes of the mandatory Masters level National Award in SEN Coordination to ensure that the qualification reflects the changing needs of the educational system. A report is due in the spring.

Ministry of Justice

Ministry of Justice: Bullying

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of (a) disabled and (b) all other staff in his Department reported experiencing bullying or harassment at work in the most recent Civil Service People Survey.

Edward Argar: Bullying and harassment has no place in any workplace, including the Civil Service. In our most recent People Survey 11% of respondents, on average, told us that they'd experienced bullying or harassment at work in the 12 months preceding the survey. While this figure has remained stable since 2016, we recognise that some staff are more like to say they have experienced this type of unacceptable behaviour than others. This includes those with long-term limiting conditions who, in the vast majority of departments and agencies, were more likely to say they'd been bullied or harassed in the last 12 months than staff members with no long-term limiting conditions. We are strengthening the routes for all staff to report bullying and harassment to ensure that they are fully supported throughout the process, and to ensure cultures are positive and inclusive. The high level People Survey results for each organisation, including reported rates of bullying and harassment, were published last December on gov.uk. Each spring the Cabinet Office conducts and publishes a range of further analysis on the People Survey responses, including the results by gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and health status. Similar analysis will be conducted again this year and made available on gov.uk. The results for the 2017 survey are summarised below with the organisations that make up the MoJ highlighted. A copy of this table has been placed in the House.Civil Service People Survey 2017: results by organisation and health status Long-term health status is captured in the People Survey through questions J04 and J04A. J04 asks if the individual has a "long-standing physical or mental health condition, illness, impairment or disability?" and, if they answer yes, J04A asks whether their condition, illness or disability has an impact on their daily activity or the work they can do. Results are aggregated in to two broad categories: "No long-term limiting condition", combining those who answer “No” to either J04 or J04A; and, "Long-term limiting condition", those who answer “Yes” to J04 and who answer that their condition limits what they can do either "a little" or "a lot" at J04A. Answered “Yes” to the question “During the past 12 months have you personally experienced bullying or harassment at work?” No limiting long-term illness Has a limiting long-term illness Acas8%21%Accountant in Bankruptcy4%0%Animal and Plant Health Agency10%23%Attorney General's Office4%..Cabinet Office9%19%Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science7%22%Charity Commission10%22%Civil Service HR13%22%Companies House4%11%Competition and Markets Authority11%33%Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority 8% 31% Crown Commercial Service10%20%Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service10%35%Crown Prosecution Service8%21%Defence Electronics and Components Agency17%38%Defence Equipment & Support10%25%Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy6%15%Department for Communities and Local Government6%19%Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport4%12%Department for Education7%17%Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs7%16%Department for Exiting the European Union6%25%Department for International Development10%20%Department for International Trade10%17%Department for Transport6%14%Department for Work and Pensions8%20%Department of Health6%9%Disclosure Scotland9%27%Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency6%16%Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency17%37%Dstl10%27%Education Scotland19%36%Estyn5%..FCO Services9%37%Food Standards Agency16%27%Food Standards Scotland8%7%Foreign and Commonwealth Office12%22%Government Actuary's Department7%..Government Internal Audit Agency9%21%Government Legal Department8%11%Health and Safety Executive10%21%HM Courts and Tribunals Service 8% 21% HM CPS Inspectorate31%..HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services20%23%HM Prison and Probation Service HQ 10% 14% HM Revenue & Customs9%22%HM Treasury7%20%Home Office: Border Force14%40%Home Office: HM Passport Office11%25%Home Office: Immigration Enforcement13%28%Home Office: Policy and Enablers9%21%Home Office: UK Visas and Immigration9%20%Intellectual Property Office7%10%Land Registry6%14%Legal Aid Agency 5% 16% Maritime and Coastguard Agency14%42%Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency9%23%Met Office8%21%Ministry of Defence10%26%Ministry of Justice HQ 7% 18% MoJ Arms Length Bodies 6% 18% National Crime Agency11%26%National Records of Scotland5%12%National Savings & Investment7%45%Office for National Statistics9%18%Office of Gas and Electricity Markets7%11%Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation7%6%Office of Rail and Road12%20%Office of the Public Guardian 15% 26% Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator15%..Ofsted5%15%Public Health England11%19%Registers of Scotland7%5%Revenue Scotland7%..Rural Payments Agency10%25%Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland Offices7%15%Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service7%19%Scottish Government8%17%Scottish Housing Regulator5%..Scottish Prison Service15%40%Scottish Public Pensions Agency13%23%Serious Fraud Office9%20%Student Awards Agency Scotland8%16%The Insolvency Service6%13%The National Archives5%21%The National Probation Service 10% 25% The Planning Inspectorate4%11%The Prison Service 13% 28% Transport Scotland9%17%UK Debt Management Office7%..UK Export Finance16%7%UK Hydrographic Office8%17%UK Statistics Authority15%..Valuation Office Agency6%17%Vehicle Certification Agency12%..Veterinary Medicines Directorate6%27%Welsh Government7%18%Wilton Park8%..Note: ‘..’ indicates value supressed due to small sample size

Cannabis: Misuse

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were (a) prosecuted and (b) cautioned for cannabis possession offences in each police authority area in each of the last two years.

Rory Stewart: As per your previous question (PQ 157684 from 27/06/2018), data is available up to December 2017, and data for the year ending December 2018 will be published in May. Therefore, the response is the same as before: (a) The number of people prosecuted for cannabis possession in each police authority has been published up to December 2017 and can be found in the ‘Court Outcomes by Police Force Area data tool’, available at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/733996/court-outcomes-by-pfa-2017-update.xlsx Select court type: ‘02: Magistrates Court’ Select offence: ’92E.01 Possession of a controlled drug - Class B (cannabis)’ and ‘92E.02 Possession of a controlled drug – Class C (cannabis)’ in the ‘Offence’ filter. The number of people proceeded against by police force area can be found in the table. (b) The number of people cautioned for cannabis possession in each police authority can be found in the table attached.



Aformentioned Table
(Excel SpreadSheet, 12.92 KB)

Veterans: Prison Sentences

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many former members of the armed forces have served custodial sentences in each year since 2000.

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of the prison population has previously served in the armed forces.

Edward Argar: Since January 2015, all offenders coming into custody (convicted or remanded) are asked at reception if they have previously served in the Armed Forces. The department publishes this data quarterly and the number declaring has remained stable at approximately 3.5% - 4%.In October 2018, Ministry of Justice published Experimental Statistics on ex-service personnel in the prison population (next release due October 2019), which indicated that there were at least 2,032 former members of the Armed Services in prison as at 30 June 2018. Details of the report and breakdown can be found at:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/750708/ex-service-personnel-prison-population-2018.pdfhttps://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/750710/ex-service-personnel-2018.ods We do not hold information on the number of former service personnel that have served a custodial sentence for the years requested, which could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The Ministry of Justice recognises the unique nature of those who served in the Armed Forces and those prisoners who declare a military background are able to access a range of specialist support, including from military charities who deliver services in prisons.

Television: Licensing

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were sent to prison for not paying (a) the television licence and (b) a subsequent fine; and how many days each offender spent in prison in the latest year for which information is available.

Rory Stewart: The number of days each offender who has been committed to prison for failure to pay fines imposed for non-payment of the BBC licence fee in the latest year that information is available is: Sentenced prison admissions for non-payment of the fine associated with using a TV without a licence, by number of days in custody; 2017 Days in custodyAdmission(s)0214223452617191101221Total admissions19 0 days in custody equates to less than one day in custody. Data sources and qualityThe figures in this table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

*No heading*

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether (a) police commissioners and (b) local authorities will have any role in the provision of probation services following the announcement of new contracts last year.

Rory Stewart: We outlined in our Strengthening Probation, Building Confidence consultation, that we wanted probation to work more closely with local partners, such as local authorities, and strengthen the role of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in the future system. We have been working jointly with the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) and representatives from different PCC offices to refine our thinking specifically around the role of PCCs and their relationship with probation services in England. We want this to support greater local transparency of probation performance, greater alignment of priorities and more opportunities for co-commissioning of rehabilitative services. HMPPS Wales are building on their positive partnership with the four PCCs in Wales around priority areas such as the Dyfodol Offender Interventions service and the Women’s Pathfinder initiative, to explore potential options around the co-commissioning of services as part of the current proposals for Wales.

Courts: Modernisation

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Government plans to (a) hold and (b) publish the outcome of a future public consultation on the courts reform programme.

Lucy Frazer: On 15 September 2016, the Government published a consultation paper, “Transforming our Justice System”, setting proposals for the reform of our courts and tribunals. This was accompanied by a joint statement by the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Chief Justice and Senior President of Tribunals setting out their shared vision for the future of Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/553261/joint-vision-statement.pdfThe government response to consultation was published on 8 February 2017: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/590391/transforming-our-justice-system-government-response.pdfFurther details of how we are engaging our stakeholders in developing the reform programme are set out in the response to the Committee of Public Accounts third recommendation on Courts and Tribunals reform, which can be accessed at the following link. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/759859/HMCTS060_ExternalStakeEngageApproach_FINAL.pdf

Feltham Young Offender Institution

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress has been made in implementing the Secure STAIRS framework at HM Young Offenders Institute Feltham; and what assessment he has made on the potential effect of that framework on the levels of (a) violence and (b) disruptive behaviour at that institution.

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether a custody support plan that provides each young offender with a weekly review by a nominated officer is in place at HM Young Offenders Institute Feltham.

Edward Argar: A staggered roll out of the SECURE STAIRS framework has commenced at HMYOI Feltham with HMYOI Feltham’s Enhanced Support Unit (ESU) currently working to the Framework. Roll out will continue over the coming year. It is too early in the project to draw any conclusions on the impact on violence or disruptive behaviour at HMYOI Feltham. The Custody Support Plan (CuSP) has been implemented in the ESU and the ESU CuSP Officers are engaging in their allocated young person’s case formulation meetings as per the joint HMPPS YCS and NHS England Behaviour Management Strategy. Full implementation is planned for the end of March 2020.

Young Offenders: Rehabilitation

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many young people are subject to a Youth Rehabilitation Order in (a) the Feltham and Heston constituency and (b) England and Wales.

Edward Argar: The most recent published data shows that in 2017/18, there were 6,794 Youth Rehabilitation Orders issued in England and Wales The Ministry of Justice does not hold data for Feltham and Heston Constituency specifically, but within Hounslow Youth Offending Service, of which Feltham and Heston is a part, there were 43 Youth Rehabilitation Orders issued to children and young people in 2017/18.

Department for International Trade

Food: Import Duties

Hugh Gaffney: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what recent estimate he has made of the level of tariffs that could be applied by both the UK and EU to food exports in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

George Hollingbery: Upon leaving the EU, the UK will be responsible for its own independent tariff regime. The UK will not be responsible for the tariffs the EU sets on its imports. The EU has stated through its technical notices that it will apply the EU’s Common External Tariff to UK exports in the event of a no deal, including on food products. The Government’s tariff schedule for a no deal scenario is being finalised. Once a final decision has been taken, we will bring forward legislation to the House and communicate this in an appropriate way for a market sensitive announcement.

Trade Agreements

Danielle Rowley: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that new trade deals do not affect the ability of the UK to (a) regulate in the public interest and (b) protect public services.

George Hollingbery: Protecting the UK’s right to regulate in the public interest and protect public services, including the NHS, is of the utmost importance. The UK’s public services are protected by specific exceptions and reservations in EU trade agreements - including the recent EU-Canada agreement (CETA) - and, as we leave the EU, the UK will continue to ensure that rigorous protections are included in all trade agreements it is party to. The Government has been consistently clear that we are committed to the fundamental principles of the NHS - that it is universal and free at the point of need. We will ensure that no trade agreements alter these fundamental facts.

Trade Agreements: NHS

Danielle Rowley: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential risks to the NHS as a result of future trade deals after the UK leaves the EU.

George Hollingbery: Protecting the UK’s right to regulate in the public interest and protect public services, including the NHS, is of the utmost importance. The UK’s public services are protected by specific exceptions and reservations in EU trade agreements - including the recent EU-Canada agreement (CETA) - and, as we leave the EU, the UK will continue to ensure that rigorous protections are included in all trade agreements it is party to. The Government has been consistently clear that we are committed to the fundamental principles of the NHS - that it is universal and free at the point of need. We will ensure that no trade agreements alter these fundamental facts.

Trade Agreements: NHS

Danielle Rowley: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, if he will take steps to ensure that future trade deals will not make it easier for private companies to provide NHS services.

George Hollingbery: The UK will continue to ensure that decisions about the NHS are made by UK Governments, including the Devolved Administrations, not our trade partners. The UK will determine whether private companies should be involved in providing services under contract, and if so to what extent. Trade deals will give no greater access for private companies, domestic or overseas, to NHS services.

World Trade Organisation: Reform

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps he plans to take to promote WTO reform and free trade after the UK leaves the EU.

George Hollingbery: The UK is a strong supporter of the rules-based multilateral trading system and global trade liberalisation. The WTO is the bedrock of rules-based free trade. The UK welcomed the commitment made at the G20 Summit last year in December to support the necessary reform of the WTO to improve its functioning. Following the UK’s departure from the EU, the UK will continue to champion discussions on WTO reform, and engage with WTO Members at international fora and in our bilateral engagements, in particular on the importance of updating rules on digital trade and ensuring that the WTO dispute settlement system is not undermined. G20 Leaders are committed to return to this matter at their Summit in June.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Housing: Construction

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the National Audit Office report entitled Planning for new homes, published 8 February 2019, what plans he has to revise the standard method for assessing housing need in order for it to be consistent with the Government's ambition to deliver 300,000 new homes per year by the mid-2020s.

James Brokenshire: In the Government response to the Technical consultation on updates to national planning policy and guidance, published on 19 February 2019, we confirmed that the standard method will be revised in accordance with the proposals consulted on. These changes ensures that the standard method remains consistent with enabling the housing market to deliver 300,000 homes a year on average by the mid-2020s.

Local Plans

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will list the local authorities that (a) do and (b) do not have an up-to-date local plan.

James Brokenshire: It is essential for authorities to have up to date plan policies in place to plan for our housing needs and to provide clarity that communities and developers about where new homes should be built. It also helps ensure that development is planned for and is sustainable rather than the result of speculative applications.It is up to Local Planning Authorities to determine if their plans are up to date and they must review their plans at least every five years to ensure that policies remain relevant and effectively address the needs of the local community. Reviewing does not necessarily mean updating is required, but they should take account of changing circumstances or changes in national policy.The Planning Inspectorate publishes local plan progress at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/777040/LPA_Strategic_Plan_Progress_-_1_February_2019._GOV.UK.pdf.

Planning Inspectorate

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government,with reference to the National Audit Office report entitled Planning for new homes, published 8 February 2019, what plans he has to improve the performance of the Planning Inspectorate.

James Brokenshire: The Government believes that all parties should benefit from a more efficient planning appeal process with faster decision-making, and that this will require additional resource. The Planning Inspectorate has recently undertaken a successful recruitment campaign which will see a further 100 Inspectors and Appeals Planning Officers join the organisation over the coming months. On 12 February, we published an independent review by Bridget Rosewell CBE into the planning appeal inquiry process which has made 22 practical recommendations to enhance and speed up the process. We will work closely with the Planning Inspectorate to implement the Review recommendations.

Housing Infrastructure Fund

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the value for money of the Housing Infrastructure Fund.

James Brokenshire: Bids for funding from the Housing Infrastructure Fund are subject to a robust assessment covering value for money, strategic fit and deliverability. On 28 January 2019, the Department published its Housing Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy that included a commitment to evaluate the Housing Infrastructure Fund.

Housing: Prices

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the National Audit Office report entitled Planning for new homes, published 8 February 2019, what steps he plans to take in response to the National Audit Office finding that developer contributions to the cost of infrastructure and affordable housing are not keeping pace with increases in house prices.

James Brokenshire: The Department does not respond to NAO reports ahead of Public Account Committee (PAC) hearings. The Department will respond to the PAC recommendations, following the PAC hearing, via the Treasury Minute process.We recently consulted on draft regulations intended to ensure Community Infrastructure Levy is more market responsive. The consultation closed on 31 January. The Government will publish its response in due course.

Planning: Skilled Workers

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the National Audit Office report entitled Planning for new homes, published 8 February 2019, what steps he plans to take to address the National Audit Office finding that his Department does not understand the extent of skills shortages in the planning sector.

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of levels of staffing in local authority planning departments.

James Brokenshire: The Government recognises that having well-resourced and skilled planning departments is essential for the delivery of our ambitious housing programme, which is why we increased planning application fees by 20 per cent in January 2018. We are working with the Local Government Association and the Royal Town Planning Institute to assess the resourcing and skills needs in council planning departments.

Citizens' Juries

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will place in the Library the list of local authority areas which have bid successfully to begin local Innovation in Democracy pilots.

Jake Berry: The Innovation in Democracy Pilot Programme (IIDP) is a great opportunity for local people to get involved in influencing policy decisions through facilitated partnerships with their local authorities. Successful areas will be announced shortly and will be published on www.gov.uk.

Homelessness: Finance

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding from the Homelessness Relief Fund was granted to (a) Barnsley, (b) South Yorkshire and (c) nationally in each year since that fund was established.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: Local authorities across the country receive funding to prevent and relieve homelessness from my Department. This includes preventing homelessness core funding and flexible homelessness support grant funding. However, we do not operate a fund called the Homelessness Relief Fund and are therefore unable to provide the specific information you request.

Local Government Finance

Mr Clive Betts: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the oral contribution of 5 February 2019 of the Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Official Report column 289, how that 4 per cent figure relating  to deprivation was calculated.

Rishi Sunak: The Government is undertaking a review of the relative needs and resources of local authorities in England, with a view to setting fresh baseline funding levels in 2020-21. We are working closely with local government representatives and others to consider the drivers of local authorities’ costs, the resources available locally to fund services, and how we should account for these in a way that draws a more transparent and understandable link between local circumstances and resource allocations.In December 2018 the Government published a consultation paper, which set out a proposed approach to assessing the relative needs of local authorities. Our analysis has shown that for many universal services, the number of people in each local authority area is the most important predictor of the costs that councils face in delivering those services. The consultation therefore proposes the introduction of a simple population-based Foundation Formula to account for many of the universal services that local authorities deliver, alongside several specific funding formulas for some of the largest and most complex service areas.To understand whether including additional ‘cost drivers’, including deprivation, significantly improves the precision of the Foundation Formula, a comparison was made between the amount of variation in past expenditure that was explained by different combinations of cost drivers, to the total amount of variation in expenditure. The basis on which this comparison was made is set out in pages 19 to 21 of the consultation paper (link below). Whilst, in aggregate terms, deprivation was not shown to be a major cost driver for the services included in the Foundation Formula, to ensure that deprivation is appropriately accounted for in the relative needs assessment, deprivation, or a suitable proxy for deprivation, is taken into account in four of the service-specific formulas that were proposed.https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/review-of-local-authorities-relative-needs-and-resources.

Buildings: Insulation

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2019 to Question 217589 on Buildings: Insulation and with reference to the Buildings Research Establishment interim report entitled Fire performance of cladding materials research – experimental methodology and performance criteria, who the members are of the referenced project steering group.

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2019 to Question 217589 on Buildings: Insulation and the interim report entitled, Fire Performance of Cladding Materials Research – Experimental methodology and performance criteria prepared by the Building Research Establishment for his Department, if he will publish the minutes of the meetings of the (a) Project Steering Group and (b) Project team.

Kit Malthouse: So as to allow the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation, the Department does not routinely release the details of members of research project steering groups or minutes of meetings. Full details of the work will be published after it is completed.

Buildings: Insulation

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February 2019 to Question 217589 on Buildings: Insulation and the interim report entitled, Fire Performance of Cladding Materials Research – Experimental methodology and performance criteria prepared by the Building Research Establishment for his Department, on what date his Department approved the bespoke testing methodology.

Kit Malthouse: The Department approved the methodology set out in the interim report on 22 August 2018.

Buildings: Insulation

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February 2019 to Question 217589 on Buildings: Insulation and the interim report entitled, Fire Performance of Cladding Materials Research – Experimental methodology and performance criteria prepared by the Building Research Establishment for his Department, if he will publish the (a) success and (b) failure criteria for the new bespoke test methodology when testing cladding and other building materials.

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February 2019 to Question 217589 on Buildings: Insulation and the interim report of the Building Research Establishment for his Department entitled Fire Performance of Cladding Materials Research – Experimental methodology and performance criteria, whether materials that fail the bespoke test will be subject to further BS 8414 large scale tests.

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February 2019 to Question 217589 on Buildings: Insulation and with reference to the interim report of the Building Research Establishment (BRE) for his Department entitled Fire Performance of Cladding Materials Research – Experimental methodology and performance criteria, whether the BRE advised against the development of a bespoke testing methodology for insulation.

Kit Malthouse: At this stage the study is aimed at developing a better understanding of the behaviour of a range of cladding products when exposed to fire and their possible contribution to fire spread.A bespoke testing methodology for insulation was not considered necessary for this stage of the research. There are a comparatively small number of insulation materials available and their behaviour when exposed to fire is already well documented.There are no success or failure criteria, the findings will help determine, in consultation with the expert panel, any further action we should take. This could include further testing at large scale and/or advice to building owners.

Local Government Services

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has made an assessment of the correlation between changes in (a) local authority funding and (b) changes in the level of provision of local authority services, excluding social care, since 2010.

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an assessment of the correlation between the (a) increased proportion of local authority spending on social care, (b) reduction in local authority overall spending on services other than social care and (c) decrease in local authority funding since 2010; and if he will make a statement.

Rishi Sunak: As democratically elected organisations, local authorities are independent of central government, and are responsible for managing their budgets in line with local priorities and their legal duties.Central government funding cannot in isolation provide a true representation of local authority finances. The responsibilities, structure and makeup of local authorities have changed significantly since 2010 and spending power, formula grants and settlement funding assessments are not directly comparable over this period. For example, with the introduction of the Business Rates Retention Scheme, local authorities estimate they will keep around £2.4 billion in business rates growth in 2018-19.As announced in the Local Government Finance Settlement, Core Spending Power is forecast to increase from £45.1 billion in 2018-19 to £46.4 billion in 2019-20. This is a cash-increase of 2.8 per cent and real-terms increase in resources available to local authorities. In the long term, the Spending Review will determine funding for local government from 2020-21 onwards and will enable us to look at local government spending in the round.

Private Rented Housing

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to amend the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 to extend the terms of that Act to people who have been tenants of private landlords for longer than seven years.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act (2018) does not have regard to the total number of years a person has been a tenant of a private landlord but rather the length of the term of the tenancy and the date the tenancy was agreed.The Act will apply to tenants who have:a tenancy agreed before 20 March 2019, with a term of less than seven years, from 20 March 2020.a tenancy agreed on or after 20 March 2019 or have made a significant change in their tenancy, with a term of less than seven years, from the date the Act comes into force.The Act will apply in the same way to tenants of a private landlord where the term of the tenancy is for more than seven years, but where the landlord has the option to terminate the tenancy before the expiry of the seven years.There are currently no plans to amend the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018.

Sleeping Rough

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Rough Sleeping Strategy, published in August 2018, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) Safeguarding Adult Reviews are conducted when a person who sleeps rough (i) dies and (ii) is seriously harmed as a result of abuse or neglect and (b) the implementation of processes to (i) record and (ii) learn lessons from those deaths.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: My Department is working with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) through the Rough Sleeping and Homelessness Reduction Taskforce to ensure that Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs) are conducted when appropriate and that rough sleepers have the health care they need, when they need it.We are ensuring that where a homeless person dies, or there has been serious harm, SARs take place where appropriate, so that local services can learn lessons from these tragic events to better prevent them from happening in the future.DHSC is working with Safeguarding Adult Boards to ensure that SARs are conducted when a person who sleeps rough dies, or is seriously harmed as a result of abuse or neglect, whether known or suspected, and there is concern that partner agencies could have worked more effectively to protect the adult. Lessons learned from these reviews will inform improvements in local systems and services.They are working with the Local Government Association (LGA) to develop a series of national events in 2019/20 to look at safeguarding and homelessness and how we can share learning from reviews into rough sleeper deaths. DHSC is also commissioning King’s College London to conduct a thematic review of the national SAR library on rough sleeping cases.

Ministry of Defence

Nuclear Weapons: International Law

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the conclusions of the New Zealand Yearbook of International Law article entitled Is the UK nuclear deterrence policy lawful? Published in Vol. 11, 2013; and if he will make a statement.

Gavin Williamson: I can reassure the House that the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent is fully compliant and compatible with our international legal obligations.

Ministry of Defence: Civil Partnerships and Marriage

Will Quince: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to allow (a) civil marriage, (b) civil partnership and (c) same-sex marriage ceremonies on Ministry of Defence sites.

Gavin Williamson: I want to make sure that all those who want a civil marriage, civil partnerships and same-sex marriage in the Armed Forces receive the same treatment as their counterparts who wish to marry in religious ceremonies. That is why I have asked the Department to look into all options on making this a reality and have written to the Ministry of Justice and the Minister for Women and Equalities pushing this issue. The relevant legislation should be changed so that all members of the Armed Forces whether they want religious ceremonies, civil partnerships or marriage, or same-sex marriage are treated equally.The Department conducted a pilot project in 2016, under the Minister of the Armed Forces, to consider the feasibility of using the MOD estate to host the registration of civil marriages or partnerships. This pilot identified a change was required to the relevant legislation to deliver this ambition. The current legislation does not allow for the MOD sites to limit who is married, and who attends civil marriages, civil partnerships and same-sex marriages; this presents difficulties in protecting security of MOD sites. The Department is working on how we fix this anomaly and have written asking for legislative change.Meanwhile, more widely in the Armed Forces I am determined that the MOD should continue to be a leader in supporting the LGBT community, and to build on the strong progress to date. We continue to strive to be an employer of choice and are working hard to improve the culture within defence to ensure that we attract and retain diverse talent, including those from the LGBT community. Indeed, I was delighted the MOD was recently recognised in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index 2019, in which all three services have been placed in the Top 100 LGBT inclusive employers listing.In 2014, we made provision to allow the marriages of same sex couples in military chapels, for those with demonstrable link to the Armed Forces and provided that the chaplain and the chaplain's Sending Church agreed. At present only the United Reformed Church (URC) permits its chaplains to conduct such marriages, and the first religious marriage of a same sex couple on Defence site took place at St Barbara's Church, HMS Excellent, Whale Island, Portsmouth in 2017.

Veterans: Identity Cards

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason there is an expiry date on the HM Armed Forces Veterans identification card.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: In line with other identification cards such as passports and the Photo ID driving licence, the Veterans ID card lasts for ten years. Appearances can change, and it is important that Veteran ID cards provide a true likeness of the individual.

Veterans

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent estimate he has made of the number of veterans who have served in the armed forces who reside in each local authority area.

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether it is his policy to record the number of veterans who have served in the armed forces who reside in each local authority area.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: The Department does not record the number of veterans who reside in each local authority. An estimated distribution of the UK Armed Forces veteran population residing in Great Britain can be found in the 'Annual Population Survey: UK Armed Forces Veterans Residing in Great Britain', the latest edition of which (2017) is published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/annual-population-survey-uk-armed-forces-veterans-residing-in-great-britain. As at 2017, there were an estimated 2.4 million UK Armed Forces veterans residing in households across Great Britain. The sample size of the Annual Population Survey is statistically too small to produce veteran estimates at geographical locations below county level. However, the Department does hold information on UK Armed Forces veterans in each local authority who are in receipt of an Armed Forces occupational pension, a disablement pension under the War Pensions Scheme or compensation under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme. This information can be found in table 3 of “Location of Armed Forces pension and compensation recipients: as at 31 March 2018 (annex A)” which is published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/location-of-armed-forces-pension-and-compensation-recipients-2018.

Ministry of Defence: Procurement

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many suppliers have been excluded from bidding for contracts due to their not meeting the criteria in his Department's Procurement Policy Note 03/14 in each year since 2014.

Stuart Andrew: The Cabinet Office's Procurement Policy Note 03/14 requires Central Government to include measures to promote tax compliance in procurement over £5 million. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is compliant with this policy and includes tax compliance conditions in its tenders and contracts.Information on whether suppliers have been excluded from bidding for contracts is not held centrally and, as the MOD has awarded nearly 4,000 contracts competitively since 2014, this data can only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Department for Work and Pensions

Universal Credit: Disqualification

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what records her Department holds on the income of the 4.9 per cent of claimants who were not in receipt of any tracked benefits in the 180 days following a universal credit live service sanction decision.

Alok Sharma: The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Unemployment: Ethnic Groups

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to tackle the comparatively high rates of unemployment among adults from (a) Black and (b) Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic groups in each (i) region and (ii) nation of the UK.

Alok Sharma: In 2015 the Government made a commitment to increase the level of ethnic minority employment by 20% by 2020. Since then, 556,000 more people from ethnic minority backgrounds are in employment, a 17% increase. The Black/African/Caribbean unemployment rate of 8.4% is the lowest it has been since this series began in 2001 as is the Pakistani and Bangladeshi unemployment rate of 7.7%.We know there is more to do following the Race Disparity Audit in 2017 which revealed a gap in employment rates between ethnic minority groups and the overall population. The Department has been addressing this by maximising the effectiveness of our jobcentres and influencing the behaviour of employers in supporting ethnic minority jobseekers into employment. For example, the Department identified 20 challenge areas across Great Britain to work with that have a large gap between ethnic minority and white employment rates. We have delivered mentoring circles in all 20 challenge areas which involve national employers offering specialised support to unemployed, ethnic minority jobseekers to help build their confidence and raise their aspirations. In January 2019, I announced that these mentoring circles will now be rolled out nationally from April 2019. We also know from the Race Disparity Audit that gender matters, even more so for the Pakistani and Bangladeshi group, where employment rates for females is less than half of White groups. To help overcome this barrier, in September we started trialling a programme with Pakistani and Bangladeshi women in Birmingham. The women participated in workshops to explore the benefits of becoming work ready and the financial incentives for their families in taking up paid employment. We will use this learning to help determine how we can deliver similar programmes across the Jobcentre network in 2019. [Figures are all based on averages from January 2018 – December 2018 (Labour Force Survey, ONS) for the UK.]

Children: Day Care

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to use the data it will hold on family circumstances through universal credit to provide more tailored support to parents in England on the types of childcare available to them.

Justin Tomlinson: Universal Credit provides an unprecedented level of personalised support, which is tailored and managed through Work Coaches. Unlike the legacy system Universal Credit Work Coaches know each person’s case and have more tools than ever before to help people prepare for work and get a job. The Universal Credit childcare costs policy aligns with the wider government childcare offer, which includes free childcare hours and tax free childcare. We are removing barriers to work by ensuring the childcare offers available eases the financial burden for parents. In Universal Credit, we test and adapt the service as we go along, to ensure support is tailored accordingly for each individual, including parents. We have recently undertaken a series of nation roadshows for operational colleagues to promote both the childcare costs offer under Universal Credit and the wider government’s childcare offer. We continue to work with other government departments to ensure parents have the information they need to make the best childcare choice for their family.

Food Banks

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made an assessment of the geographic coverage of food banks throughout the UK.

Justin Tomlinson: The Department has not made any assessment of the geographical coverage of food banks in the UK. Details of the geographical locations of food banks in the Trussell Trust network can be accessed through the following link:-https://www.trusselltrust.org/get-help/find-a-foodbank/The Independent Food Aid Network is currently undertaking an exercise to map independent food banks, details of which can be accessed through the following link:-http://www.foodaidnetwork.org.uk/mapping

Children: Maintenance

Martin Whitfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason (a) child maintenance payments are allocated first to (i) enforcement charges and (ii) debt and then to children and (b) there is no provision to retrieve payments which have been allocated incorrectly by the system or manually.

Justin Tomlinson: (a)The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) does not prioritise the collection of enforcement charges over on-going maintenance and arrears. Only when all the money due to children, along with any associated collection fees, has been collected, will the CMS collect the remaining charges associated with the case, including enforcement charges. The only exception would be where an enforcement charge forms part of a liability order, which would be collected alongside the other debt associated with that order.(b)The system does have the Manual Allocation capability, which enables a caseworker to allocate money received across any outstanding liability on a case

Universal Credit

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the evidential basis is for her oral contribution of 11 February 2018, Official Report, column 594, that food bank use had increased in the initial roll-out of Universal Credit because people had difficulty in accessing money on time; and if she will make a statement.

Justin Tomlinson: The proportion of new claims to Universal Credit Full Service receiving full payment on time in January 2017 was 55%. Since then Waiting Days have been abolished, advances increased from 50% to 100% and a two week run on of housing benefit was introduced. Latest figures for full payment on time in the first assessment period for November 2018 show an increase to 86% from the 55% recorded in January 2017. Between 2017 and 2018, the number of people making a claim to Universal Credit rose by 132%. Trussell Trust data for the same period shows an increase in the number of foodbank parcels issued to Universal Credit claimants of 90%. So while there may have been difficulties in early 2017, what we may be observing now is a substitution effect as legacy claims are replaced by Universal Credit claims, rather than an increase directly attributing to Universal Credit.

Universal Credit

Ruth George: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much has been deducted from universal credit claimants' standard allowance in each month since April 2017.

Alok Sharma: The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Equine Flu: Disease Control

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he has taken to minimise the spread of the equine flu.

David Rutley: The Government has been monitoring the situation and maintaining close contact with the Animal Health Trust (AHT) and British Horseracing Authority (BHA) as well as the Equine Disease Coalition. Equine flu is a contagious disease of horses, donkeys, mules and all equidae. Clinical signs include a raised temperature, cough and nasal discharge, lethargy and loss of appetite. In otherwise healthy horses cases typically resolve within 1-2 weeks. It is not a public health risk. Vaccination is the main control measure, alongside isolation of infected cases and minimising the mixing of horses during an outbreak. Equine flu is not a notifiable disease in the UK, which means that the industry takes responsibility for surveillance, testing and vaccination. The Horserace Betting Levy Board, which is a Government arm’s length body, provides funds to the AHT, which is an internationally approved reference laboratory for equine flu. Horse owners are urged to contact their private vet if they suspect respiratory illness and to practice good biosecurity and isolate suspected or confirmed cases.

Dairy Farming

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he has taken to support dairy farmers to obtain a fair price from supermarkets for their produce.

George Eustice: We want all farmers to get a fair price for their products and the Government is committed to tackling the unfairness that exists in the dairy supply chain. There are a number of possible options for achieving this, including using new powers in our Agriculture Bill to introduce Statutory Codes of Practice, and using existing powers on Mandatory Written Contracts. The approach taken will need to take account of the outcome of EU negotiations, and a wide range of stakeholder views. We will launch a full consultation in due course.

Agriculture: Children

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to promote jobs in (a) agriculture and (b) horticulture to children.

George Eustice: It is a key priority of this government to enable an innovative, productive and competitive agricultural and horticultural sector.Attracting young talent into agricultural and horticultural careers and having a skilled workforce in place is vital for the future of UK food and farming.The Government is working with industry bodies, such as the Food and Drink Sector Council, to raise awareness of agriculture as an exciting and attractive career path and to improve access to the talent and skills required by the industry.The Government is reforming post-16 technical education to provide clear routes to skilled employment in agriculture and other sectors. A key part of this is the introduction of new T levels programmes, which alongside apprenticeships, will sit within 15 routes, including an Agriculture, Environmental and Animal Care route.

Non-native Species: EU Law

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what management measures his Department has in place to meet the UK’s obligations under Article 19 of EU Regulation No 1143/2014 on invasive alien species.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: Article 19 of the EU Invasive Alien Species Regulation (“The EU Regulation”) requires EU Member States to put in place effective management measures for listed species that are widely spread so that their impact on biodiversity, ecosystem services, human health and the economy are minimised. These measures must be aimed at the eradication, population control or containment of the population of a species. Around 15 of the listed species are widespread in England and Wales, including grey squirrel, muntjac deer and floating pennywort, and management measures are already in place for some of these. For example, work by the Forestry Commission and UK Squirrel Accord partners under the Grey Squirrel Action Plan, and the removal by the Environment Agency of more than 1,000 tonnes of pennywort from the River Ouse in 2018. We will be consulting on measures for widespread species.

Salmon: Scotland

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions officials in his Department have had with their counterparts in the Scottish Government on trends in mortality rates for farmed salmon.

George Eustice: The Government is aware of concerns about trends in mortality rates for Scottish farmed salmon. Aquaculture is a devolved matter. The issue is therefore a matter for the Scottish Government, which we understand is taking action, including through the Farmed Fish Health Framework. Officials are in regular discussions with Scottish Government counterparts on a wide range of issues related to fishing and aquaculture.

Agriculture: Subsidies

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure the (a) maintenance and (b) transparency of information in relation to farm payments after the UK leaves the EU; whether his Department's CAP Payments Search website will be used to hold that information; and whether it will link recipients of payments to company and directorship registers kept by Companies House.

George Eustice: It is right that the public are informed of how and where public funds are spent. We intend that information currently made available through our CAP Payments Search pages will continue to be published after the UK leaves the EU. This will apply in relation to payments made in England under the legacy CAP schemes, using retained CAP legislation, until the planned end of our agricultural transition period in 2027, or until the legacy schemes have ended, if earlier. Clause 2 of the Agriculture Bill contains powers to enable information to be published in relation to the new system of payments that will replace CAP schemes. This includes information on who receives payments and for what purpose. The exact nature of that information will be determined during the design process and in close discussion with stakeholders and across government. We will need to ensure a balance between transparency of public expenditure and commercial sensitivities.

Rural Payments Agency: Geospatial Commission

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Rural Payments Agency is participating in the work of the Geospatial Commission; and whether there are plans to publish the Rural Land Register as part of the work of that Commission.

George Eustice: The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has made initial contact with the Geospatial Commission (GC) and is looking to have a productive working relationship. Outside of the work of the GC, Defra’s data sharing platform and data.gov already allow private sector organisations and the public access to many of Defra’s geospatial open datasets. The RPA is working alongside the Ordnance Survey, the Environment Agency, Digital Data and Technology Services and the agri-tech sector to develop the IT, control and licence protocols to enable more of the RPA’s land data to be more openly accessible using the data sharing platform.

Non-native Species: EU Law

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which competent authority or authorities are responsible for ensuring compliance with the restrictions under Article 7 of EU Regulation No 1143/2014 on invasive alien species.

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish a list of incidents recorded of non-compliance under under Article 7 of EU Regulation No 1143/2014 on invasive alien species.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: The enforcement bodies for Article 7 will include UK Border Force, the Police, Natural England and Natural Resources Wales.The Government has no plans to publish a list of recorded non-compliance prior to Order coming into force. Where breaches of the EU Regulation have been reported, the Government has taken the appropriate action including liaising with online sales platforms to facilitate the removal of online listings that contravened the restrictions laid out in the EU Regulation.

Tyres: Recycling

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what due diligence his Department undertakes relating to used tire exports to India for recycling purposes.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: The UK and India are both parties to the Basel Convention which provides the system for controlling movements of hazardous and other wastes between countries. It is fully implemented in UK law through Regulation (EC) 1013/2006 on the shipment of waste and the UK Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007. Under Regulation (EC) 1013/2006, most exports of non hazardous wastes destined for recycling to non-Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries are subject to light touch international export controls known as ‘green-list’ controls. The European Commission asks non-OECD countries, including India, to indicate where more stringent controls are required. India has indicated that exports of tyres from the UK can be exported under green-list controls and must also meet the requirements of Indian regulations. The UK environmental regulators take an intelligence led approach to checking compliance with waste export regulations. They carry out proactive and intelligence led inspections to stop waste shipments that breach these regulations before they leave our ports. Where concerns are raised about a recycling facility in other countries, further information is requested from the relevant authorities in that country to confirm sites are permitted and regulated according to their national laws. In our recently published Resources and Waste Strategy, we set out plans to introduce Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for more waste streams, including tyres. This will increase the responsibility on tyre producers regarding their end of life. We are also further developing a range of measures including: increased monitoring of international waste shipments, improved provision for waste repatriation, and charging higher fees to improve compliance. These changes aim to ensure any waste we do send abroad is fit for recycling, and that it is recycled to equivalent standards as required in the UK. This should create a more level playing field for domestic recyclers as well as reducing the chances of exported tyres being mishandled.

Pets: Travel

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to publish further guidance on pet travel to Europe after the UK leaves the EU.

David Rutley: Whatever the outcome of negotiations, when the UK leaves the EU, owners of pet dogs, cats and ferrets will be able to continue to travel to the EU with their pets but there may be changes to the system. We want owners to continue to be able to travel with their animals with the minimum of disruption, whilst maintaining our high biosecurity and welfare standards. However, it’s our duty as a responsible Government to prepare for all eventualities, including a ‘no deal’ scenario. On 6 November 2018, Defra published guidance on Pet Travel to Europe after Brexit in preparation for the possibility of leaving the EU without a deal. The guidance also contains advice on the documents and health preparation required for pets to return to the UK from the EU. The Department will continue to keep this guidance up to date as the arrangements that allow pet owners to travel to and from the EU with pets after the UK leaves the EU are confirmed.

Home Office

Diamorphine: Glasgow

Mr Paul Sweeney: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 19 November 2018 to Question 191442 on Diamorphine: Glasgow, what the guidelines are on chronic heroin addiction treatment plans as a condition of his Department permitting a diamorphine prescribing licence to local authorities.

Victoria Atkins: The issue of ‘prescriber’ licences was devolved to the Scottish Ministers in 2012. The timeline for a decision on any prescriber licence or any conditions to be assigned to that licence are matters for Scottish Government.Any controlled drugs licenses required by the organisation at a specific premises to possess and supply controlled drugs are a matter for the Home Office.

Deportation: West Africa

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 October 2018 to Question 174681 on deportation: West Africa, what the outcome was of the considerations taking place in relation to the two people who were referred under the National Referral Mechanism for the identification of victims of trafficking; and what type of status was granted to the individual who was a family member of an EEA national.

Caroline Nokes: There are conclusive grounds to accept that the two people referred under the National Referral Mechanism for the identification of victims of trafficking, are both victims of modern day slavery.One individual has been granted a period of discretionary leave. There are no reasons to believe that the other individual requires protection and/or assistance and therefore a grant of Discretionary Leave has not been made. The individual was issued a residence card as a non-EEA national family member confirming their right to reside in accordance with EEA Treaty rights.

Fraud: Prosecutions

Graham P Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Serious Crime Act 2015 on prosecuting perpetrators of financial abuse.

Victoria Atkins: The Serious Crime Act 2015 introduced a new domestic abuse offence of coercive or controlling behaviour in intimate and familial relationships. The statutory guidance underpinning the offence is clear that financial abuse, such as controlling the victim’s finances, is a type of behaviour that can form part of a purposeful pattern of behaviour over time to exert power, control or coercion over another person.In 2017-18 960 offences of coercive or controlling behaviour have been charged and reached a first hearing, more than three times the volume in the previous year. This shows that the offence is having an impact and sends a strong message that coercive or controlling behaviour will not be tolerated.On 21 January we published our landmark draft Domestic Abuse Bill and consultation response which will transform the cross-Government response to this devastating crime. The draft Bill includes provisions for a statutory definition of domestic abuse, including economic abuse. Replacing ‘financial’ with ‘economic’ acknowledges how broad this form of abuse is and how many aspects of a victim’s life it can affect, such as limiting their access to fundamental resources such as money, food, transport, employment and housing. This will raise awareness of the issue of economic abuse and also enable frontline professionals and the criminal justice system to better understand, recognise and tackle it, so that victims can be supported to achieve the economic stability that they need.The draft Bill is underpinned by a comprehensive package of non-legislative action which we have set out in our consultation response, including a commitment to review the effectiveness of the coercive or controlling behaviour offence to ensure it is fit for purpose and that it adequately protects victims from abuse. In addition, we have committed to update the statutory guidance and CPS legal guidance on the offence to include economic abuse and provide guidance on how this form of abuse can manifest itself as part of a pattern of coercive control

Early Intervention Youth Fund

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Early Intervention Youth Fund; and what accomplishments that fund has achieved.

Victoria Atkins: Our Early Intervention Youth Fund of £22 million is already supporting 29 projects in England and Wales. Over £17 million has already been allocated to projects delivering interventions to young people at risk of criminal involvement, gang exploitation and county lines.The successful bids were announced in November 2018 and so it is too early to make an assessment of the Fund’s effectiveness and any accomplishments.We will be appointing an independent evaluation partner who will support local partnerships with monitoring arrangements and will gather qualitative and quantitative data over the course of the project. This work will contribute to a programme wide evaluation, including an overview of what we have learnt about good practice. The projects will also be required to provide regular updates on their progress.

Police: Finance

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria are used in the allocation of police funding to tackle violent crime.

Victoria Atkins: The Government understands that police demand is changing and becoming increasingly complex. That is why we have provided a strong and comprehensive funding settlement for the police that will increase funding by £970million compared to 2018/19, including precept, pensions funding and national investment.In relation to tackling violent crime, our Serious Violence Strategy, published in April 2018, is supported by £40million over 2 years to deliver initiatives that tackle serious violence, this includes: an Early Intervention Youth Fund of £22 million which is already supporting 29 projects in England and Wales. Over £17 million has already been allocated to projects delivering interventions to young people at risk of criminal involvement, gang exploitation and county lines.Other funding we have made available to tackle serious violence includes: £3.6million to set up a National County Lines Co-ordination Centre; a Community Fund that provided £1.5 million this year to support 68 projects; and £1.4m to support a new national police capability to tackle gang related activity on social media.Police funding continues to be a priority for the Home Secretary and we are working closely with the police sector to better understand the demand landscape.

Knives: Crime

Hugh Gaffney: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle incidents of knife crime on the railways.

Victoria Atkins: The chances of being a victim of crime, on the railways or elsewhere, remain extremely low. However, the Government is very concerned about increases in knife crime and its impact on victims, families and communities. The action we are taking is set out in our Serious Violence Strategy and includes new legislation in the Offensive Weapons Bill and continuing police action under Operation Sceptre. The British Transport Police also participate in Operation Sceptre and we expect the next national week of action to take place in March 2019.More widely, we have also been supporting the #knifefree media campaign to raise awareness of the consequences of knife crime and discourage young people from carrying knives more generally. The Serious Violence Strategy includes a strong focus on prevention and early intervention to stop young people being drawn in to knife crime. Our Early Intervention Youth Fund of £22 million is already supporting 29 projects in England and Wales. Over £17 million has already been allocated to projects delivering interventions to young people at risk of criminal involvement, gang exploitation and county lines.We are supporting 68 small community projects this year through the anti-knife crime Community Fund. In addition, we have extended our support for Redthread in hospital emergency departments to introduce its “teachable moment” youth violence intervention work to hospi-tals in Birmingham and Nottingham.

Early Intervention Youth Fund

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans he has to assessment the effectiveness of the allocation of funds from the Early Intervention Fund.

Victoria Atkins: Our Early Intervention Youth Fund of £22 million is already supporting 29 projects in England and Wales. Over £17 million has already been allocated to projects delivering interventions to young people at risk of criminal involvement, gang exploitation and county lines.We will shortly be appointing an independent evaluation partner who will support projects with their monitoring arrangements and will gather qualitative and quantitative data. This work will contribute to a programme wide evaluation, including an overview of what we have learnt about good practice. The projects will also be required to provide regular updates on their progress as part of their grant agreements.

Immigration: EEA Nationals

Alex Chalk: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the EU Settlement Scheme will open to applications from EEA nationals.

Caroline Nokes: The EU Settlement Scheme will be open to all EEA citizens, including citizens of the EEA EFTA states (Norway Iceland and Liechtenstein) and Swiss citizens by 30 March 2019.

Organised Crime

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps he has taken to tackle serious and organised crime; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Ben Wallace: Serious and organised crime affects more of us, more often, than any other national security threat, persistently eroding our economy and our communities. It costs the UK at least £37 billion every year.The newly updated Serious and Organised Crime Strategy, published on 1st November 2018, sets out how the Government will mobilise the full force of the state and align the collective efforts of key partners from the public, private and voluntary sectors to tackle serious and organised crime together in one single approach.The cross-system approach is aligned to the four strategy objectives:(i) Relentless disruption and targeted action against the highest harm serious and organised criminals and networks affecting the UK(ii) Building the highest levels of defence and resilience in vulnera-ble people, communities, businesses and systems(iii) Stopping the problem at source, identifying and supporting those at risk of engaging in criminality(iv) Establishing a single, whole-system response, aligning the ef-forts of all those involved in responding to serious and organised crime as one, cohesive system.The Government has already made some early progress in implementing the Serious and Organised Crime Strategy. For example, we have established new community coordinators in five pilot areas to promote community resilience and divert people away from serious and organised crime. We have also recruited a new cross-government overseas policy specialists network to complement existing international law enforcement operational workThe Government is determined to prevent serious and organised crime, defend against it, track down perpetrators and bring them to justice. We will allow no safe space – online or offline – for these people and their networks.

Fire and Rescue Services: Labour Mobility

Sir David Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of the number of redeployment opportunities for firefighters who have to work until the age of 60.

Mr Nick Hurd: We do not collect data on redeployment opportunities for firefighters.The availability of redeployment opportunities is a matter for individual fire and rescue authorities as employers.

Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre: Per Capita Costs

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost per detainee is of detaining someone at Yarlswood immigration removal centre; and how that cost is calculated.

Caroline Nokes: The Costs of individual Removal centres are commercially sensitive. The costs for calculating the average daily cost of a removal centre are as below.The costs are derived at by dividing the Total Resource Costs of running Detention Centres (Contracts, staff, Rent, Rates, Utilities and Depreciation) by the average number of bed spaces (currently 3448).The average cost to detain an individual in immigration detention is provided on a per day basis. The current daily cost per detainee is £88.29, which corresponds to an annual cost of £32,227 (£88.29 multiplied by 365 days). Data can be found at the link belowhttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-enforcement-data-november-2018

British Nationality: EU Nationals

Deidre Brock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he will make it his policy to offer UK citizenship to EU citizens free of charge on the same basis as the EU Settlement Scheme.

Caroline Nokes: As the Prime Minister announced on 21 January, there will be no fee for applications under the EU Settlement Scheme when we roll out the scheme in full by 30 March. Anyone who has applied during the pilot phase, or who does so, will have their fee reimbursed. The Home Office will set out further details in due course.We have no plans to reduce or abolish the fee for British citizenship applications for EU citizens.

Home Office: Bullying

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of (a) disabled and (b) all other staff in his Department reported experiencing bullying or harassment at work in the most recent Civil Service People Survey.

Victoria Atkins: Bullying and harassment has no place in any workplace, including the Civil ServiceIn our most recent People Survey, 11% of respondents, on average, told us that they'd experienced bullying or harassment at work in the 12 months preceding the survey.Whilst this figure has remained stable since 2016, we recognise that certain groups of staff are more like to say they have experienced this type of unacceptable behaviour than others. This includes staff members with long-term limiting conditions who, in the vast majority of departments and agencies, were more likely to say they'd been bullied or harassed in the last 12 months than staff members with no long-term limiting conditions.We are strengthening the routes for staff to report bullying and harassment to ensure that all staff are fully supported throughout the process, and to ensure cultures are positive and inclusive.The high-level People Survey results for each organisation, including reported rates of bullying and harassment, were published last December on gov.uk.Each spring the Cabinet Office conducts and publishes a range of further analysis on the People Survey responses, including the results by gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and health status. Similar analysis will be conducted again this year and made available on gov.uk.A summary table of 2017’s results by organisation and health status on bullying and harassment at work was placed in the House library by Cabinet Office on 19 February 2019.

Police Patrolling

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much and what proportion of a police officer's time is spent on walking patrol in their local community.

Mr Nick Hurd: The Home Office does not hold centrally the information requested.

Police: Managers

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department has taken to reduce the amount and proportion of police funding spent on administrative and managerial roles.

Mr Nick Hurd: The 2019-20 police funding settlement provides the biggest increase in police funding since 2010, with more money for local police forces, counter terrorism and tackling serious and organised crime.At the 2018/19 police funding settlement, we set out clear priorities for the police to deliver this year on efficiency, productivity and financial transparency. The police developed a plan and are on track to deliver £120 million in commercial and back office savings by 2020/21.As I set out in my Written Ministerial Statement of 24 January the investment of up to £970 million, including council tax precept, in the 2019/20 police settlement will support four key pillars of police effectiveness. Firstly, it will help increase capacity, secondly it will assist crime prevention, thirdly we will enhance the support we offer to hard-working frontline police officers and staff. And finally, by ensuring system leaders provide national direction on performance, including through working more smartly, with the digitally enabled modern tools to police effectively.However, it is for the individually elected PCC’s to determine how to allocate their resources as they are best placed to understand the needs of the communities they serve.

Knives: Crime

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to support police officers to reduce knife crime.

Mr Nick Hurd: The Government supports the police in their important work to tackle knife crime in a number of ways. We continue to encourage forces to participate in the national weeks of enforcement action under Operation Sceptre, co-ordinated by the National Police Chiefs’ Council. Results from the September 2018 phase of Operation Sceptre are as follows:• All 44 police forces took part in the week of action. • Over the course of the week of action a total of 1002 arrests were made• A total of 1779 stop and searches were carried out• 9302 knives were surrendered or seized• 1158 weapon sweeps were conducted, resulting in the recovery of 172 knives and other weapons. In addition, 8781 knives were surrendered• 496 test purchase operations were carried out in retail premises. Of these, there were 397 passes. 99 resulted in the retail outlet failing the test purchase• 1280 education events - including workshops, were also held in schools to raise awareness of the dangers of carrying knives.The next week under Operation Sceptre is taking place in March.We are encouraging the police to use stop and search. It is a vital policing tool when used correctly and officers have the Government's full support to use these powers in a targeted way that is fair, lawful and effective. We are looking at ways to work with the police to reduce bureaucracy and increase efficiency in the use of this power. We have also listened to the police re-quest that we introduce new Knife Crime Prevention Orders to help them to divert those involved in knife crime away from a violent lifestyle. The Government is seeking to introduce the new Order through amendments to the Offensive Weapons Bill.The Offensive Weapons Bill, currently passing through Parliament, includes specific new knives offences, in particular making it an offence to possess certain offensive weapons in private, and stopping knives being sent to residential addresses after they are bought online. These measures are designed to help the police in their response to knife crime.In addition to supporting the police on law enforcement, our Serious Violence Strategy stresses the importance of early intervention to tackle the root causes of serious violence and provide young people with the skills and resilience to lead productive lives free from violence. Our Early Intervention Youth Fund is already supporting 29 projects in England and Wales, and our anti-knife crime Community Fund is supporting 68 local community projects to tackle knife crime. Our national knife crime media campaign - #knifefree – also aims to raise awareness of the consequences of knife crime and to discourage young people from carrying knives.

Immigration Controls: Commonwealth

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will introduce priority passport checking gates for citizens entering the UK from (a) Australia, (b) New Zealand and (c) other Commonwealth realms.

Caroline Nokes: The Government has already announced that, from this summer, nationals of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Singapore as well as those from Japan, South Korea and USA will be permitted to use our ePassport gates when crossing the UK border.The enabling legislation has recently completed its passage through Parliament and the change is on track to be implemented as planned.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Dame Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many non-UK EU children are residing in the five local authorities selected by his Department for the private beta testing phase two of the EU Settlement Scheme in (a) total and (b) in each local authority pilot site area.

Caroline Nokes: The Home Office does not hold data on how many EU National children reside in the five local authorities which participated in the second Private Beta test phase of the EU Settlement Scheme.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Dame Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of (a) the number of non-UK EU children in care and (b) the number of those children in each local authority that were part of his Department's private beta phase two testing pilot by (i) age and (ii) EU nationality.

Caroline Nokes: The precise number of non-UK EU children in care is not known. Local authorities do not routinely collect this data. The Home Office has estimated that there are approximately 5,000 EU children in care in the UK, not including care leavers. This estimate is based on ONS data on the proportion of EEA citizens per Local Authority and government data on volumes of children in care per Local AuthorityThe second Private Beta phase included some applications for Looked After Children made by five local authorities. The local authorities which participated did so voluntarily for some of the EU children in their care. In total 19 applications were made on behalf of looked after children by these local authorities. Applicants were aged between 5-17 and comprised 6 different nationalities.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Dame Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of the number of non-UK  EU children in care who could not take part in his Department's private beta phase test pilot (a) in total and (b) in each local authority pilot site because they did not have a passport.

Caroline Nokes: According to the rules laid before parliament (on 11/10/2018) for the second Private Beta phase of the EU Settlement Scheme, only a child being looked after (within the meaning of section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) by one of the five named local authorities, with a chipped passport, was eligible to apply.The Home Office did not estimate the number of children who could not take part in the Private Beta phase because they did not have a passport.All EU applicants, including looked after children, will be able to apply with an ID card or a passport once the scheme is rolled out fully from 30 March 2019. In addition, from that date it will be possible for applicants to submit alternative evidence of their identity and nationality where they are unable to provide a passport or national identity card due to circumstances outside of their control, or for compelling practical or compassionate reasons.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Dame Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many non-UK EU children in care took part in the Home Office's private beta testing phase two of the EU Settlement Scheme (a) in total and (b) in each local authority area; how many (i) received settled status, (ii) received pre-settled status, (iii) were refused, (iv) requested an administrative review (A) in total and (B) in each local authority area.

Caroline Nokes: In total 19 applications were made on behalf of looked after children by the participating local authorities. We are unable to provide a breakdown by local authority as this may identify some of the children involved.16 have received settled status.0 have received pre-settled status0 have been refused0 have requested an administrative reviewWe are working with the relevant local authorities to gather further evidence for the 3 outstanding cases.

Cannabis: Medical Treatments

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many specialist doctors are licenced to prescribe medicinal cannabis.

Mr Nick Hurd: None. From 1 November 2018, specialist doctors on the Specialist Register of the General Medical Council have been able to prescribe cannabis-based products for medicinal use without the need for a Home Office li-cence.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Dame Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether during the private beta testing phase two of the EU Settlement Scheme his Department instructed local authorities to support eligible non-UK EU children in care to secure British citizenship.

Caroline Nokes: During the second Private Beta phase of the EU Settlement Scheme, participating local authorities were not instructed to support eligible EU national children in care to secure British citizenship.Local authorities participated on a voluntary basis to apply on behalf of some children in their care. Only looked after EU national children (within the meaning of section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) were eligible to participate in this phase of the scheme. The Private Beta phase did not involve applications for British citizenship, which is a separate process.

Domestic Abuse

Conor McGinn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what framework social services use when dealing with (a) adolescent-to-parent violence and abuse and (b) child-on-parent violence.

Victoria Atkins: The Government is committed to tackling all forms of domestic abuse. On 21 January 2019, we published a landmark draft Domestic Abuse Bill alongside a wide-ranging package of measures to protect and support victims.As part of our package of commitments, we will drive forward wide-ranging reforms to children’s social care, to ensure that social workers provide effective support to children and families affected by domestic abuse. We are also providing funding for the development of training for social workers on domestic abuse.In 2015 the Government published an information guide on adolescent to parent violence and abuse, which provides materials and advice to support professionals in their response, including social workers.

English Language: Assessments

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he plans to complete his review of the treatment of people accused by ETS of cheating in English language tests.

Caroline Nokes: I refer to my previous answer to question 163106.In relation to reviewing live ongoing litigation we continue to work closely with applicants and the Courts to progress each individual case.Where people have made a Human Rights claim this will be considered and even if refused will generate an in country right of appeal (unless the claim is clearly unfounded).

Home Office: Procurement

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many suppliers have been excluded from bidding for contracts as a result of not complying with the criteria set out in the guidance entitled, Procurement policy note 03/14: promoting tax compliance, in each year since 2014.

Victoria Atkins: The specific information you have requested is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. This is because the information sought is not recorded on systems and a manual search through individual records would be required.

Prisoners: Repatriation

Mr Philip Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign national offenders have been repatriated under the early removal scheme by country since 2010.

Caroline Nokes: The Home Office publishes quarterly statistics on the number of Foreign Na-tional Offenders (FNO) that have been removed from the UK under the Early Removal Scheme. This information can be found by accessing the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-enforcement-data-november-2018The Home Office does not routinely disclose country specific information re-garding the deportation of FNOs as its disclosure could prejudice relations between the UK and foreign governments.

Cabinet Office

Cabinet Office: Consultants

Jon Trickett: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much money has been spent from the public purse on services provided by (a) Deloitte, (b) Slaughter and May and (c) Mott MacDonald as recorded by his Department's spend analytic in each of the last five years.

Oliver Dowden: Departmental spend over £25,000 is routinely published on Gov.UK.

Government Departments: Procurement

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the guidance entitled, Procurement policy note 03/14: promoting tax compliance, how many suppliers were allocated contracts as a result of complying with (a) one and (b) more than one of the mitigating circumstances after failing the tax compliance questions.

Oliver Dowden: This information is not held centrally.

Females: Pay

Kate Green: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of workers earning £30,000 per annum or less are women.

Chloe Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.



UKSA Response
(PDF Document, 70.64 KB)

Prime Minister: Apprentices

Tracy Brabin: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of staff employed by in No. 10 Downing Street are apprentices.

Oliver Dowden: The Cabinet Office currently employs 90 apprentices who are actively completing an apprenticeship, this equates to 1.31% of our workforce.As set out in the Civil Service apprenticeship strategy, the Civil Service has pledged to achieve 30,000 apprenticeship starts in England by 2020, annually delivering 2.3% of our workforce in England as apprenticeship starts.Work is underway to produce detailed plans, at business unit level, to identify how they will meet their target in 2019/20

Children: Paracetamol

Ruth George: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many children under the age of 16 have had a (a) fatal and (b) non-fatal paracetamol overdose in each of the last 10 years.

Chloe Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.



UKSA Response
(PDF Document, 66.91 KB)

Children: Paracetamol

Ruth George: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many children under the age of 18 have had a (a) fatal and (b) non-fatal paracetamol overdose in each of the last 10 years.

Chloe Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.



UKSA Response
(PDF Document, 66.91 KB)

Treasury

Royal Bank of Scotland

Frank Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of maintaining majority ownership of Royal Bank of Scotland.

John Glen: The Government believes that, as a matter of principle, firms best succeed under private ownership. Returning RBS to the private sector is the right policy for taxpayers, customers, and the wider economy. The Government intervened in RBS to maintain stability at the height of the financial crisis. RBS was never a speculative investment made to generate a profit, and it is right that private investors, not taxpayers, should bear the risk of companies such as RBS. The Government’s policy remains to return the financial sector assets acquired during the crisis to private ownership, when it represents value for money to do so, and market conditions allow.

Child Benefit

Angela Crawley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 15 February 2019 to Question 220289, Children: Maintenance, if she will provide further information on the overall care test used to determine entitlement to child benefit.

Elizabeth Truss: Child Benefit is payable where a claimant is responsible for a child under the age of 16, or a qualifying young person up to the age of 20 in full-time non-advanced education or approved training. A person is treated as being responsible for a child in any week where:(i) they have the child living with them in that week; or(ii) they are contributing to the upkeep of the child at a weekly rate not less than the amount of Child Benefit payable for that week. Only one person can get Child Benefit in respect of a child. In cases of shared care, where more than one person meets the entitlement criteria and makes a claim for Child Benefit, priority rules apply. These rules are set out in the Child Benefit Technical Manual at the following link. www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/child-benefit-technical-manual/cbtm08001

Equitable Life Assurance Society: Compensation

Mr Robert Goodwill: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has plans to allocate additional funding to the Equitable Life payment victims.

John Glen: There are no plans to review the funding allocation made to the Equitable Life Payment Scheme. Since 2010, we have taken more action than any previous government to resolve this issue by allocating up to £1.5bn, tax free, for payment to affected policyholders.

Investment: Fraud

Dr David Drew: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government plans to introduce measures to require banks to reimburse people who have been misled by fraudulent investment schemes.

John Glen: The Government takes the issue of investment fraud very seriously and is committed to protecting people and pursuing those who perpetuate scams wherever possible. In the area of pension scams in particular, the Government introduced regulations to ban pensions cold calling which came into force in early January 2019. Firms who break the rules could face penalties of up to half a million pounds. If fraudulent investments were recommended by an authorised financial advisor, the consumer can seek redress by the advisor’s firm by bringing the case to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). In the event that the authorised financial adviser is responsible or a UK authorised collective investment scheme fails, consumers also have access to Financial Services Compensation Scheme protection. The FSCS provides compensation to customers of financial services firms that have failed. Since 2011 the FSCS has paid over £60 million to claimants.

Foreign Investment in UK

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent steps he has taken to increase the level of Foreign Direct Investment into the UK.

Robert Jenrick: Since 2010 we have significantly lowered the headline rate of Corporation Tax from 28% down to 19% today – the lowest in the G20, with further cuts to 17% legislated by 2020. We have also created a world-leading offer on creative sector tax reliefs, given significant support for R&D investment through the tax system, and introduced the Patent Box regime to attract international investment in intellectual property to the UK. These steps have helped to create a highly competitive and FDI-friendly business environment.

Asset Protection Agency

Martin Whitfield: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish the (a) focused assets covered under the Asset Protection Agency and (b) focused assets underwritten by the Asset Protection Agency that were transferred to West Register between 2009 and 2012.

John Glen: The Asset Protection Agency (APA) was set up in 2009 to manage the Asset Protection Scheme (APS), with the objective of maintaining financial stability and protecting taxpayers’ interests by helping participating banks manage their exposure to high-risk assets. The 2009-10 APA Annual Reports and Accounts state that the APS initially provided protection on £282bn worth of assets on the consolidated balance sheet of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc. The detail of these assets is commercially sensitive. The Annual Report can be found here: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130129110533/http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/apa.htm To develop a more streamlined and better focused monitoring process for these assets, in 2011 and 2012 the APA stopped reviewing certain low risk assets and instead focused on a number of larger, high risk assets, known as the “Focus List”. Further information on the make-up of the Focus List can be found at http://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2012-0368/DEP2012-0368.pdf and at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/229293/0120.pdf. Further detail on the assets underwritten by the APA, including the assets that were transferred to West Register, an RBS subsidiary, between 2009 and 2012, is commercially sensitive information in relation to RBS’ customers.

Government Departments: Procurement

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many suppliers have been excluded from bidding for contracts as a result of not complying with the criteria set out in the guidance entitled, Procurement policy note 03/14: promoting tax compliance, in each year since 2014.

Robert Jenrick: The information is not held centrally.

Homelessness: Finance

Liam Byrne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to classify as a priority in the next Spending Review, funding to reduce rough sleeping and homelessness.

Elizabeth Truss: The government is committed to tackling homelessness and rough sleeping. We have provided £1.2bn of funding to address homelessness. In August, we announced a £100m Rough Sleeping Strategy to begin progress to meet the commitment to halve rough sleeping by 2022, and eliminate it by 2027. All long-term decisions on public spending will be taken at the Spending Review this year, when the Chancellor will set out his approach for the future.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Football: Finance

Sir David Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what meetings he has had with the Premier League in the last six months to discuss future funding for grassroots football.

Mims Davies: I met with the Premier League on 31 January 2019. The Secretary of State met with them on 30 October 2018. The funding of grassroots football was discussed, and on both occasions the Premier League reaffirmed their commitment to invest over £100million in each of the next three years towards improving community football programmes and facilities across the whole of the country in partnership with the Football Association (FA) and Government.

Football: Sportsgrounds

Sir David Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to all-weather football pitches at grassroots level.

Sir David Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has received recent representations on the role of local authorities in the future of grassroots football; and if he will make a statement.

Mims Davies: Sport England invests £18million each year into football facilities on behalf of the DCMS through ring-fenced exchequer contributions to the Football Foundation. This funding, matched in partnership with the FA and the Premier League, sees more money than ever before going towards priorities identified in the National Football Facilities Strategy. The Strategy sets new challenging targets to significantly improve the nation’s facilities stock over the next 10 years with an increase in 3G pitches is a key strategic priority. This will be delivered through initiatives like the “Parklike Hubs” programme that predominantly aims to deliver multi pitch 3G hubs for community use at strategic locations across the country.Local authorities are important stakeholders in the implementation of the National Football Facilities Strategy as so much of the stock of facilities are in public ownership. Sport England is working closely with the FA to develop Local Football Facility Plans for every Local Authority in England. The plans will be in place by 2020 and will identify local priorities where investment in grassroots facilities is needed the most.

Football: Schools

Sir David Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to improve public access to school football facilities to increase participation in grassroots football.

Mims Davies: We want all schools to maximise the use of their facilities – for the mutual benefit of schools and their communities. This is an ambition set out in the Government's Sporting Future strategy and the Department for Education’s Governance Handbook for schools. Sport England’s 'Use Our School' resource has been designed to support schools to open up their facilities for community use and to help those that are already open to stay open. The new cross-departmental School Sport and Physical Activity Action Plan, which will be published in the spring, will also consider how school facilities can best be used to encourage all children to play more sports, including football, and to be more active.

Women and Equalities

Political Parties: Equality

Faisal Rashid: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if the Government will bring into force section 106 of the Equality Act 2010 so that political parties would be required to publish diversity data on candidates standing in elections.

Victoria Atkins: We keep section 106 under review, as we do with other uncommenced provisions in the Equality Act 2010. The Government Equalities Office is working to support women and disabled people to participate in politics. This includes the recently announced fund to support disabled candidates to seek electoral office, to meet the costs of campaigning, primarily for the forthcoming English local elections in 2019. Ultimately, parties are responsible for their candidate selection and should lead the way in improving diverse representation. Many are already doing so.